NHS also rightfully acknowledges that 'in many cases gender variant behaviour or feelings disappear as children reach puberty.'

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/94477

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/94475

The decision to halt the universal prescription of life-altering drugs is long overdue considering there was never any evidence that permanently manipulating a child’s body would remedy his or her mental struggles.

In recent years, pharmaceutical companies and bureaucracies began marketing a sterilizing chemical regime as a way to “pause” puberty for the growing number of kids who claim to struggle with gender dysphoria.

On the contrary, the increasing body of evidence shows that pumping kids full of neutering drugs causes irreversible harm, including sexual dysfunction and permanent infertility, a higher risk of cancer and cardiac events, impaired vocal cords, bone density issues, and transition regret.

  • @S_Roman
    8•2 years ago

    Gender affirming care for children involves making irreversible decisions that can have long-term physical, psychological, and social consequences.

    That’s very misleading:

    https://www.childrenshospital.org/programs/center-gender-surgery-program/eligibility-surgery

    The only such permanent physical change available is top surgery, only for 15 year olds and up, and only after the following qualifications:

    A letter from a medical doctor or nurse practitioner stating that you have “persistent, well documented, gender dysphoria” and specifying either the length of hormone therapy or why you are not taking hormone therapy.

    A letter from a mental health provider stating that you have the capacity to consent and that any significant mental health issues are being addressed

    Informed consent is a reasonable qualification for medical treatment for a something that is clearly a persistent health issue. And none of this is genital surgery.

    As for “permanent psychological and social” change, that’s a weird thing to take issue with given that any decision in your life could have such an effect. Go to the wrong school, choose the wrong job, wrong career, live in the wrong neighborhood, choose the wrong treatment/doctor for your cancer, thyroid issues, broken leg, cronic illness, etc, it all caries that risk. Life sucks and it has risk, it’s unreasonable to expect no risk for anything, especially when it comes to medical stuff.

    Lack of long-term research: The field of gender affirming care for children is relatively new, and there is a lack of comprehensive long-term research on the outcomes of these interventions.

    That’s a moot point because the research we do have already shows that GAC is the best option for the health of patients. Why is it the best? Because the alternative is suicide. People with gender dysphoria end up killing themselves when they don’t get treatment.

    Ethical considerations of irreversible interventions: Gender affirming care for children often involves irreversible medical interventions such as hormone therapy or surgeries

    You are exaggerating the permanency of the hormone stuff, it takes a constant source of medication for that stuff. These things aren’t overnight changes either. It takes a long while before anything like puberty blockers or HRT is even allowed, there has to be a long medical history of dysphoria prior to that. And I’ve already covered the misinformation about surgeries above.

    Do you know what’s even more permanent than all these things combined? Suicide. If I had a Trans kid I would rather have them alive. That’s a bigger ethical consideration.

    Parental rights and autonomy: Decisions regarding a child’s gender affirming care should be primarily left to the parents, as they are responsible for the well-being of their children.

    This I can agree with, however:

    By allowing a diversity of perspectives and not imposing a single medical consensus

    This isn’t right. I would hope you wouldn’t say this about other things.

    “Gravity? We shouldn’t impose a single physicist consensus, we should allow a diversity of perspectives”

    Science is the best tool we have for learning objectively about things, including medical. It’s a bad move to value it at zero.