This article, in the NYT of all places, does a good job of capturing my feelings and what I know about this issue. Opinion | As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do. But right-wing demagogues are not the only ones who have inflamed this debate. Transgender activists have pushed their own ideological extremism, especially by pressing for a treatment orthodoxy that has faced increased scrutiny in recent years. Under that model of care, clinicians are expected to affirm a young person’s assertion of gender identity and even provide medical treatment before, or even without, exploring other possible sources of distress. Laura Edwards-Leeper, the founding psychologist of the first pediatric gender clinic in the United States, said that when she started her practice in 2007, most of her patients had longstanding and deep-seated gender dysphoria. Transitioning clearly made sense for almost all of them, and any mental health issues they had were generally resolved through gender transition. “But that is just not the case anymore,” she told me recently. While she doesn’t regret transitioning the earlier cohort of patients and opposes government bans on transgender medical care, she said, “As far as I can tell, there are no professional organizations who are stepping in to regulate what’s going on.” Most of her patients now, she said, have no history of childhood gender dysphoria. Others refer to this phenomenon, with some controversy, as rapid onset gender dysphoria, in which adolescents, particularly tween and teenage girls, express gender dysphoria despite never having done so when they were younger. Frequently, they have mental health issues unrelated to gender. While professional associations say there is a lack of quality research on rapid onset gender dysphoria, several researchers have documented the phenomenon, and many health care providers have seen evidence of it in their practices. Detransitioners say that only conservative media outlets seem interested in telling their stories, which has left them open to attacks as hapless tools of the right, something that frustrated and dismayed every detransitioner I interviewed. These are people who were once the trans-identified kids that so many organizations say they’re trying to protect — but when they change their minds, they say, they feel abandoned.
So what was the harm? They changed their minds later in life, detransitioned, and now they are complaining that trans-support groups don't support them? Is that it? Maybe the people complaining should start a support group of people who detransitioned ...
Or maybe don't let kids take drugs that can cause permanent damage to their reproductive organs when they are still children? I don't care what someone does once they are 18, but these drugs should not be given to children.
Well if you were a girl and had a double mastectomy that’s kind of hard to reverse. Or sex change operation. There is even some evidence that long term use of puberty blockers has lasting effects, such as inability to climax during sex.
Are you talking about Puberty blockers, because the effects are reversable and don't cause permanent damage ...
As I mentioned in the Disney thread, I never met a single kid during all my years of schooling through college, nor heard about any single one of my peers who had "gender dysphoria" or thought they were a different gender. The statistics bear out this is a very recent phenomenon. The only logical explanation for it is big pharma needed a new niche. There is no chance a child that is 6 years old even knows what gender roles are. The entire ordeal is disgusting and very revealing as to the amount of evil that surrounds us. What they are doing to these children is horrific. I still can't believe it's actually happening. As another poster said above, what somebody chooses to do with their body once they turn 18, let them have at it. Children cannot consent to puberty blockers or genital mutilation. 20 states have passed laws banning treatment in minors. It needs to be a federal law, but it is INSANE that there even needs to be a law written. Mutilating a child is already illegal. Big pharma and healthcare needs buy in to avoid the obvious malpractice lawsuits. It's completely nuts.
Correct. A child cannot consent to genital mutilation or puberty blockers. And in this situation most of these children are way removed from 18 years old. We're talking 6, 7, 8 years old. Horrific.
It's a tiny number, and those sorts of surgeries are extremely rare on kids under 18. There were 282 "top surgeries" in the US in 2021, as far as I can tell, 0 "bottom surgeries". I think there probably are a legitimate 282 girls with gender dysphoria, but, it's up to them, their parents, and their doctors to decide, period.... Number of transgender children seeking treatment surges in U.S. (reuters.com)
I'll take making stuff up for $1,000 please Alex. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(21)00235-2/fulltext The evidence to support medicalised gender transitions in adolescents is worryingly weak Increasing Number Of European Nations Adopt A More Cautious Approach To Gender-Affirming Care Among Minors
Swing and a miss ... There are no known irreversible effects of puberty blockers. If you decide to stop taking them, your body will go through puberty just the way it would have if you had not taken puberty blockers at all. Puberty Blockers for Youth (phsa.ca)
So you disregard the other studies I posted and posted some bs. Got it. You aren't serious about this topic. Next time I'll just laugh and move on.
yes. That seems radical to give on a whim of a child’s choice with no telling who might be influencing them, and per article “there are no professional organizations who are stepping in to regulate what’s going on.”
Pretty sure it's not the child's choice, though. I mean, they need parental permission and a doctor's diagnosis and recommendation before proceeding ... it's not like are showing up to these centers and saying "my friend David dared me to become a girl, so hand over the hormones"...
I looked at the links for the "several researchers," and unsurprisingly, they're to a couple researchers who have relied on questionable methods (relying on accounts from parents on forums that oppose gender-affirming care), including linking to a piece that was retracted for not following IRB protocols. The empirical support for "rapid onset gender dysphoria" is quite weak. Weak enough that some of the most anti-trans people have tried to recede from that term because they can't actually define what "rapid" is. Evidence Undermines 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' Claims | Scientific American I'm not sure why you'd be surprised the NYT ran this. They've been absolutely trash on this issue, to such an extent The Onion has actually mocked them for it. It Is Journalism’s Sacred Duty To Endanger The Lives Of As Many Trans People As Possible
So you disregard the other link I posted and posted some bs. Got it. You aren't serious about this topic. Next time I'll just laugh and move on.
I sure a glad we are not on the verge of war in the middle east and the pacific so we can worry about stupid shit like this.
From the article in the OP: At 17, desperate to begin hormone therapy, Powell broke the news to her parents. They sent her to a gender specialist to make sure she was serious. In the fall of her senior year of high school, she started cross-sex hormones. She had a double mastectomy the summer before college, then went off as a transgender man named Grayson to Sarah Lawrence College, where she was paired with a male roommate on a men’s floor. At 5-foot-3, she felt she came across as a very effeminate gay man. At no point during her medical or surgical transition, Powell says, did anyone ask her about the reasons behind her gender dysphoria or her depression. At no point was she asked about her sexual orientation. And at no point was she asked about any previous trauma, and so neither the therapists nor the doctors ever learned that she’d been sexually abused as a child. “I wish there had been more open conversations,” Powell, now 23 and detransitioned, told me. “But I was told there is one cure and one thing to do if this is your problem, and this will help you.” If this account is accurate, the doctors didn't ask questions, didn't learn the patient's background, didn't have open discussions with the patient, didn't make real attempts at therapy until after transitioning etc. I wonder if those things aren't required for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and if they are required, maybe this was an example of medical malpractice.
