Children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, NHS England has confirmed.
The government said it welcomed the “landmark decision”, adding it would help ensure care is based on evidence and is in the “best interests of the child”.
The NHS England policy document, published on Tuesday, said: “We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of (puberty blockers) to make the treatment routinely available at this time.”
And do you think all these scientists and doctors haven’t thought about all the problems and side effects and why it might still be necessary before they think about giving children a drug like this? Do you think it is not being closely monitored? We have many years of experience with this, not only with children with gender dysphoria.
All you see is “messing with their physiology at such a critical stage of development”, what you don’t see is the “mess” of watching a child go through the wrong kind of puberty and the damage it does for a lifetime, and you haven’t confronted yourself with that or the corpses of young people who have killed themselves because they just couldn’t take it any more.
This is something that requires knowledge, not emotion. I understand that you are uncomfortable with this process, nobody can take that away from you. Either do not think about it and leave it to the specialists, or get the knowledge to understand what you are talking about.
To take away a life-saving drug because some people who are not affected by it, do not want to face the damage and loss of life, or do not want to learn about the procedure, feel uncomfortable, is the stupidest and most evil thing I can think of. Guess who I think ist the irresponsible person here.
Well said. My daughter’s best friend is trans and his parents do support him to an extent, but not enough to have gotten him puberty blockers. So now he wears a what must be uncomfortable tight chest binder every day just so that he can look at himself in the mirror and not hate himself because he sees breasts.
This boy is 13 and he already vapes and smokes weed and he cuts himself. Would puberty blockers have prevented all of that? Probably not. I’m sure things like being forced to use the girl’s bathroom and girl’s locker room in school and the teachers being forced to deadname him (hooray Indiana) contribute as well. But I can’t help think that his mental health would at least be more improved if he didn’t have to spend his days in discomfort just to avoid hating himself whenever he sees his reflection.
“The most stupid and evil thing you can think of” is being about 98% supportive?
I’m well aware of what the treatment entails. Doesn’t change my belief that we are selectively ignoring risks and possible issues here that we don’t for less ideologically charged subjects teenagers dabble in.
We don’t allow kids to get tattoos, piercings, don’t allow them to skip school, don’t allow them to go out late at night. We keep them from talking to strangers, from opening bank accounts, from doing any real business actually. We keep them safe from drugs and alcohol, in many parts from the concept of sexuality in general.
Why? Because teenagers are idiots in the most confusing and uncertain stage of their lives. And we know they can’t grasp many of those choices yet, so we keep them from making them before they are fully grown.
Why is something that goes way beyond the scope of those minor transgressions we shield them from considered a choice someone at that age can make without the risk of severe, lifelong regrets?
You admit that anything to do with gender dysphoria is more important than a minor transgression. You are right, it is more important than a tattoo, because the stakes are higher if you refuse help.
a long-standing and intense pattern of gender nonconformity or gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria emerged or worsened with the onset of puberty.
Coexisting psychological, medical or social problems, if any, are stable enough to begin treatment.
The adolescent has given informed consent.
Many health professionals and, where possible, parents are involved in the process.
Delaying puberty does not mean that the child has to change gender, it means giving them more time to think about it until they are of age, giving them the time to live as their preferred gender and find out if it is the right one or if they want to stay with their birth gender. At any time the child can decide to stop taking the medication and will go through puberty like any other child, just a bit late (which happens naturally for some children).
It is exactly the opposite of what you say it is. It avoids the damage of a false puberty, gives time for decision making and time to “grasp the choice and consequences” and gives them time to grow up and make the permanent decision later. Everything you say is basically pro puberty blocker.
You’re mostly comparing legal and financial ramifications to self-identity. I trust a teenager more to tell me who they are than to pay back a car loan.
From the little research I’ve done, puberty-blockers don’t have long-term effects and most kids aren’t on them more than a few years. This is widely agreed upon in the medical community. There is non-biased research done on this for decades you can read up on.
Yes, being a teenager is weird and confusing. Even more so, if you feel like you live in the wrong body, I imagine. That’s the exact reason puberty blockers are effective, by giving a teen a little more time to figure out their identity, without it being rushed or compounded by the effects of puberty.