Safe and Reversible?

Bone density loss, altered brain development, infertility and lack of sexual function in adulthood, emotional numbness, and leg length discrepancy. I'm willing to bet you have not heard all of these as possible side effects of puberty blockers. I didn't know all of them until now, but my family and I were informed of several of these by a doctor when considering putting me on them for precocious puberty. The discussion was real, and my family decided against it. The discussion is not real for children taking puberty blockers as part of “gender affirming care”. Instead of an actual discussion of the risks, there is just the "safe and reversible" chant.

I think that the discussion of medical ethics and safety, especially regarding children, should be beyond politics. I think this particular issue is even beyond the issue of adults transitioning and the social aspects of trans ideology. This is a medical experiment on children and should be taken very seriously. Even people who are not opposed to transitioning in general should be concerned about this because it affects future transitioning decisions too.

Take the case of Jazz Jennings. He was given puberty blockers then estrogen as a child and, while still a child, he underwent his initial vaginoplasty. It was botched because his genitals had not developed. This intervention as a child removes the option for pursuing vaginoplasty as an adult. I know Jazz and his family were not aware of this because all of his procedures were experimental.

Relating to experimentation, the studies that show the effects of puberty blockers were from children who were prescribed it for precocious puberty. They "paused" puberty and then went on to go through it at a more appropriate age. Even that sometimes had complications. With transgender children the pause is never lifted. It is instead, replaced with hormones to mimic the opposite sex puberty. This is a different discussion and has not been proven safe at all. Even after Jazz's complication related to further transition procedures, his story is not cited as a warning but rather positioned as a success story. This is affecting the ability of children and families to make medical decisions for the future. Uninformed consent is not consent.

I do feel that affirming a child's transgender identity, saying that their body is indeed wrong and needs to be "fixed", is emotional abuse. I also believe that medically affirming this is medical abuse. But many parents who go down this path are simply terrified for their child. They are frightened by the suicide statistic and sometimes concerned about their child's previous or current mental health struggles. They were told that their child needs to be their “true self” and that they are harming them by not affirming. The parents follow the doctors’ advice for “gender affirming” care because they don't know themselves.

The doctors are not telling the truth. The mantra that puberty blockers are safe and reversible is meant to shut down questioning and criticism. It is not the truth that patients and families need to hear before making this decision.

Lying to patients is abuse. I believe that time will show gender affirming care to be the medical scandal that it is. Until then, I will continue to talk about this to whoever I can. I have experienced the truth of trans ideology when I identified as trans as a teenager. I have since desisted and I am very thankful that I was never given medical interventions. I've seen how manipulative affirming peers can be and that's not even parents or doctors. Children deserve to be protected and families deserve to know the truth, not the political slogans.