Florida Dept. of Health no longer supports treatment of gender dysphoria for minors

I am in agreement that gender-reassignment surgery should not happen until 18. And that's the law in a lot of places (if not most places). It's also generally what doctors recommend. Hormone therapy is something different completely. There's no good reason to deny it.

 

What's a "normal life"? Because if I am defining it as you clearly did, yes, that's what I'm suggesting.

 

we are just gonna have to agree to disagree here. A puppy can’t decide he doesn’t want to be a dog until his nuts drop. You are fundamentally changing the course of a child’s life - to put them on course to live the rest of their lives as a gender they were not biologically assigned. And that’s what hormone therapy does. You are influencing the life of that child to live the rest of their lives as a transgender person - and to endure all that entails. Not saying that won’t happen anyway. But you’re almost assuring it happens with the hormone therapy. I just think that’s a choice an adult should make.

Address the depression/suicide issue as best as possible. But I think this stuff needs to wait until 18.

 

That's the problem. You can't do that unless you address the issue causing it. And hormone therapy is far more reversible than you're making it out to be.

Again, this sounds an awful lot like the people who used to claim that minors can't know that they're gay.

 

Hormone therapy is reversible the same way a face tattoo is removable.

 

Hormone therapy will reverse itself as soon as a person stops taking the blockers. Will a tattoo dissappear on its own? No. Stupid analogy.

And again, what are your medical credentials? Why do you, or anyone get b to decide what is best for all children, especially when those with medical credentials all say hormone blockers can be a good treatment.

 

Reversing the hormones of an individual for an extended period of time during their adolescent peak will fundamentally and permanently change that person going forward both physically and mentally. Did you not go through puberty? Do you honestly think you’d be the same dude you are now if you started taking massive doses of estrogen when you were 13 until you were 18? Cmon. You’re changing the course of a kids life.

 

Okay, now apply this logic to a transgender person.

 

Life isn’t fair. It’s not anybody else’s place to make a decision like that and a kid has no business making that decision. They can wait until they are 18.

 

“Again, this sounds an awful lot like the people who used to claim that minors can't know that they're gay.”

I don’t support surgery or hormone therapy to influence the sexual orientation of children either. This is something they need to figure out on their own.

 

Life isn't fair, so we should have the government step in, take choice away, overrule medical experts, overrule parents, and overrule children . . . all because you're worried some people might make the wrong decisions if given the choice? Woof. And we should ignore that the government stepping in will harm more children than it helps? Big woof.

 

I ask again, what are your credentials? Why should I agree with the feelings of a random message board poster instead of medical professionals with advanced degrees and years of practical experience? And want to know what said professionals say? Here's a link from the Mayo Clinic.

Puberty's physical changes can cause intense distress for many gender-nonconforming adolescents. When taken regularly, GnRH analogues suppress the body's release of sex hormones, including testosterone and estrogen, during puberty.

For children who have gender dysphoria, suppressing puberty might:

• Improve mental well-being
• Reduce depression and anxiety
• Improve social interactions and integration with other kids
• Eliminate the need for future surgeries
• Reduce thoughts or actions related to self-harm

Use of GnRH analogues pauses puberty, providing time to determine if a child's gender identity is long lasting. It also gives children and their families time to think about or plan for the psychological, medical, developmental, social and legal issues ahead.

If an adolescent child decides to stop taking GnRH analogues, puberty will resume.
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Again, decisions like this shouldn't involve anyone other than the parents, the kid, and the kid's doctors. If a kid since 6 has shown gender dysphoria, and puberty blockers are all agreed upon, then the experts agree that's what is best for the kid's mental well being. Disagree all you want, but I'll take the expert opinions all day, every day.

 

yes. That’s what I’m saying. That is a choice an adult should make. They can stick it out for 5-7 years and then do as they please. Big dramatic WOOF!

 

Disagree. This decision should involve the individual and the individual alone when they are of a suitable age to make such a decision.

 

That's if they make it to 18. Florida's law has the effect of increasing suicide in trans youth by 40%. And again, medical experts disagree with you. Why should you, or the state, be the judge of what's right for medical decisions, and not the medical experts themselves?

 

Do you think minors should have the right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy?

 

Yes.

 

Man you know you are an extremist when you attack some pretty liberal posters for not being extreme enough. Good lord.

 

Why should the government be involved in tattoo decisions for infants? Is that really your question?

 

The question was for 10 year olds.