i feel like a lot of cis people don't get that puberty blockers aren't something trans kids really want. theyre a compromise designed to avoid trusting trans children too much. we should be letting them go through the puberty of their chosen gender, not forcing them to wait till adulthood for it - ThreadSky

claire-eff.bsky.social • 189 days ago

i feel like a lot of cis people don't get that puberty blockers aren't something trans kids really want. theyre a compromise designed to avoid trusting trans children too much. we should be letting them go through the puberty of their chosen gender, not forcing them to wait till adulthood for it

Reposted from Daniel Sohege

The denial of medical treatment for trans individuals will be looked on with the same disgust as we now do with barbaric homophobic policies of the past which saw the likes of Alan Turing destroyed. That doesn't help the people being harmed by it now.

www.theguardian.com/society/arti...

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publiusmaximus.bsky.social•188 days ago

I hadn't actually thought about that, no.

Thank you for explicitly talking about it.

sixregrets.uhoh-boom.com•189 days ago

i think a lot of normalizing trans youth care is going to have to involve tearing down the idolization of pumping out 2.5 kids 'the natural way'

drdnar.bsky.social•189 days ago

puberty blockers are prescribed to trans adolescents to make cis adults feel better. from the kid's perspective, it's not directly helping them, it's just making them wait.

it's the adults who want puberty blockers---because they're hoping the transness will somehow go away

sarahesteinberg.bsky.social•188 days ago

I know an enby kid who will probably benefit from them but yeah the trans kiddos in my sphere with a firmer binary identity should definitely be able to go through their proper puberty at the age appropriate time 😭 lucky they have supportive families so they'll get the best available options but oof

drdnar.bsky.social•188 days ago

Oh that's interesting. Now I kinda feel bad for enby erasure.

sarahesteinberg.bsky.social•188 days ago

Nah I mean I think it's right to say standard of care be an appropriate puberty and for an enby kid that could mean blockers, you know? I'd never thought through what blockers meant negatively for the binary trans kids so it's worth talking about.

drdnar.bsky.social•188 days ago

the "they" here may not be the parents! it can also be politicians, doctors, WPATH, &c.

proptermalone.bsky.social•189 days ago

honest q: how often do people take puberty blockers and then not later transition?

nonbinary.computer•189 days ago

Very, very rarely. We're talking above 98-99%.

It's extremely hard to get on blockers, even in places that aren't institutionally hostile where trans care for minors exists, and basically nobody who isn't very obviously, legibly, trans with really crippling, legible, dysphoria gets that far.

nonbinary.computer•189 days ago

There's quite a number of things that have to go in your favour in order for it to happen. You have to have supportive parents. You have to be able to get to a clinic (there aren't that many). In the US, your parents have to be able to afford it. And that's just to get to the clinic door.

nonbinary.computer•189 days ago

Once you're there (and it may be quite a wait before you get seen, even in decent jurisdictions), there's quite an extended assessment process and therapy. A lot of doctors still have a pretty simplistic understanding of what a trans person looks like, and if you don't fit that, you're SOL.

nonbinary.computer•189 days ago

You have to be, among other things, "insistent, consistent, and persistent" in your expression of a cross-gender identity/gender dysphoria. So generally, you'll be in therapy/assessment for some time to prove that. If, after that point, the doctor is convinced, then you may get puberty blockers.

nonbinary.computer•189 days ago

I should clarify, this is the best case scenario. You didn't get a Kenneth Zucker type who gets your parents to make you conform to your AGAB until he deems you ready. You didn't get a Tavistock or Finnish gender clinic type who asks invasive, creepy questions & leads you round in circles for years.

proptermalone.bsky.social•189 days ago

are the meds expensive?

nonbinary.computer•189 days ago

They're not cheap (one big difference from HRT). An injection of a GNRH agonist (aka a puberty blocker) like Lupron is quite expensive. You'd only need one every few months, but out of pocket the cost is afaik over $2k per shot.

proptermalone.bsky.social•189 days ago

huh. did not realize!

claire-eff.bsky.social•189 days ago

but the whole concept of puberty blockers is that cis parents, doctors, etc. don't trust trans children to still want to transition by adulthood, so instead they just have them delay puberty until they can legally make their own decisions. blocking all sex hormones isn't a part of medical transition

lcwesthaven.bsky.social•189 days ago

Best practice is to block puberty until the minor reaches Gillick competence and can make decisions regarding their own healthcare. This follows the informed consent model (same for accessing contraception and other medical interventions). This happens in Australia.

lcwesthaven.bsky.social•189 days ago

The best way of illustrating the rank hypocrisy of medical practice is to look at what happens to intersex minors within a healthcare system...

lcwesthaven.bsky.social•189 days ago

I found the work of Brian Earp, who i followed on Twitter back in the day, to be helpful when thinking about this https://youtu.be/Zg9C7-D-S_E?si=JlVmCraI4zw5V5KW

lcwesthaven.bsky.social•189 days ago

(Sorry to hijack your thread!)

jennothingelse.bsky.social•189 days ago

This is one of the parts of the opposition to puberty blockers by the anti-trans crowd I’ve always found the strangest. Surely, one believes a child is just “confused” about their gender, delaying puberty until they figure it out would be a good thing?

claire-eff.bsky.social•189 days ago

transfeminine medical transition does often involve blocking some sex hormones, like using an antiandrogen to lower the level of testosterone created by the body, but this is done alongside adding estrogen. the R in HRT is, of course, "replacement," and that works just as well for children as adults

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