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Comment on Puberty blockers to be banned indefinitely for under-18s across UK
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Only for gender dysmorphia.
Which is still stupid to ban it for that, but a lot better than a total ban.
I don’t know why people are so worried about it. I was over 6 feet tall and shaving before I was a teenager, if I had been given the option to press pause for a few years I would have jumped on it.
There is pretty much zero negative side effects to puberty blockers, it literally just delays it and early puberty is an issue and one that continues to trend in the wrong direction.
nbcnews.com/…/puberty-starting-earlier-treatment-…
Obviously it can be much worse for girls than boys, but it was still fucking weird being a child and having people twice your age assume you were a peer.
Dasus@lemmy.world 1 week ago
13esq@lemmy.world 1 week ago
As far as I understand it, there are two main concerns that people have.
There is very limited data regarding clinical proof that the long term use of puberty blockers is 100% reversible in cases that block puberty during the typical years that you would go through it. Traditionally, puberty blockers would be used in cases where children start puberty at extremely young ages, In these cases the puberty blockers would be withdrawn at an age typical for a child to start puberty.
Leading on from point 1. Many people don’t trust children to make decisions that could impact them for the rest of their lives. Some parents are concerned they will be met with their child who is now a young adult to be asked “why the hell did you let me make that decision, don’t you know the mind is still developing at that age?”. I would not want to be held accountable for the countless stupid things I said or beliefs I held at a young age, so I can see why it is a concern.
Personally, I’m broadly in support of trans rights and what people want to do when they’re adults is their own business, but I think allowing a child to make a decision that may impact them for the rest of their lives is a grey area to say the least. I’d draw the line for a child at anything that’s not 100% fully reversible.
flamingos@feddit.uk 1 week ago
Puberty blockers have been prescribed to transgender youth since the 90s, they’re use in combating gender dysphoria is just as much a part of the puberty blocker tradition as their use in combating early puberty.
This subtle notion that slips into this discourse that being trans is akin to a make-belief thing is deeply frustrating. No, children were not just being given puberty blockers because they suddenly declared that they weren’t their assigned gender. Getting puberty blockers required a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, something I can assure you is not an easy thing to get in this country, and even then still needed a specialist’s approval.
This is the worst part of this ‘debate’, people are led to believe that it’s the child deciding for themselves that they get puberty blockers despite the very stringent requirements on their use for trans youths. The point of this entire ordeal is not to protect kids (puberty blocker usage have a 4% regret rate), it’s to build up the idea that no amount of safeguards can make the prescribing of trans healthcare acceptable to people you don’t believe have full bodily autonomy. Where this goes from here is not looking for other areas in which our medical system is failing children, it’s expanding the list of trans people who don’t have full bodily autonomy. The Cass Review has already said that autistic people need special consideration.
floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
It’s not a child making the decision. It’s typically adults making the decision for the sake of the child, and based on the child’s needs.
Deciding to go ahead with puberty is also a decision that impacts a child for the rest of their life. In cases of gender dysmorphia this can cause psychological trauma that won’t just clear up, and prolong the agony by forcing the person to live into adulthood with a body that feels deeply wrong. At this point, transitioning can be more difficult because the body may already have taken on pronounced characteristics associated with the wrong gender.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 week ago
There is about 40 years of real life use, and I think a good 20 years of study before that?
How much data from clinical studies and real world use do you need to feel comfortable?
But the permanent effects of puberty blockers are negligible…
What do you think is permanent about them?
I don’t think you understand what Puberty Blockers are…
You seem to be wanting to ban something completely different.
13esq@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The forty years worth of proof you are referring to is in almost all cases where the use was to block early puberty and then allow it to take it’s course at a normal age. I did mention this.
At the end of the day, I’m not pretending to be an expert in puberty blockers, I’m saying that sometimes children need to be protected from themselves.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Which is what would happen if they decided not to go thru with transitioning as an adult…
Which is what you said you’re worried about.
Like, you’re still talking about something besid s puberty blockers:
Lots of children go on puberty blockers, the reason they’re going on them doesn’t change how safe they are.
I’m saying you don’t seem to know what they are. The temporarily block puberty. That is it. You keep wanting to take it to a possible surgery later as an adult, and claim the blockers are a permanent and irreversible step towards that
When that is just factually incorrect.
It is not an opinion we disagree on. It is a fact and you are wrong.
Literally what puberty blockers are…
So children don’t have to prematurely choose if they want to transition they take blockers until they are sure and mature enough to make that decision, which is almost always when they’re over 18.
If they change their mind, they just stop taking blockers.
I legitimately have no idea how to state it any plainer than this.
mindlesscrollyparrot@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
If puberty blockers are not reversible and if the person decides that they are not trans in later life, then the consequence would be that they are stuck in a body that doesn’t match their self-image.
If that sounds bad to you, well …
yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
Vaccines can have devastating permanent side effects. Should parents no longer vaccinate their children?
The answer for both is:
Whichever option does less harm should be taken. A delayed puberty, despite potential long-term risks does less harm than a trans child going through the “wrong” puberty.
Besides, due to the start of puberty having a pretty large range there should in theory be little harm until the age of 14 or so. And at that age children are much more capable of deciding on medical treatments than as preteens.
13esq@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The main difference with vaccines is the overwhelming medical proof of the benefits, that’s something that currently isn’t there with the use of puberty blockers during the years you would typically go through it.
I do somewhat agree with your less harm premise. If a child literally threatens to kill themselves, then as a parent you’d feel like you had little choice in the matter, however if there are permanent side effects and the child, now as a young adult starts regretting their decision, it’s going to be shit for everyone.
yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
There is significant proof of benefits:
doi.org/10.1111/camh.12437
I can’t vouch for the quality of this literature review (because I don’t care about taking an hour or more to read a paper for a Lemmy comment), but usually literarture reviews show a fuller picture than individual studies.
Also, this sentence is in the conclusion: