This is a great story that needs to be shared by all those who think puberty blockers are harmless. Please write a book on this brave man. His life is a book
What in the heck are you talking about. He was born male wanted male puberty. I was a trans girl and I did not want to bee big and masculine. Don’t you understand?
No. I have a post on why this guy is wrong on so many levels. Fisrt, he was a cis boy that wanted male puberty to grow larger. I was the opposite. I was a transgender girl that did not want to go through male puberty.
My parents found out when I was 12 and took me to one of the top child psychiatrists in the east coast. He decided I could be cured if ai was put in a hyper masculine environment. I as sent off to one of the top 5 military schools in the country for 3 years until I was reprogrammed to be a boy and to keep me out of town until ai was to protect the family’s stellar reputation. (That school costs $48,000,per year.) When the memory pops in my head tears still slide down my cheeks as they are now. This was in 1970. Only 4 years after the last lobotomy. They tried to lobotomies me with out an ice pick. They tried to wipe out the girl in me instead of just accepting me as their daughter.
The weird thing is my mother taught Home Ec. You know basically a finishing course. I am a better girl that all the omen I know locally except one. I am the best cook. I am wonderful at putting girls outfits. (Always start with shoes). I can out on a proper high tea party including polishing all the sterling silver, what to serve including water express sandwiches quartered with crust cut off and petite fours instead of cake.
Sorry I digressed. I have always had body dysmorphia from going through male puberty. The grossest and most foul dog to me is a boxer because his testicles are as
Prominent as his nose. When mine showed up and started growing I was just as grossed out. It was like I had to tumors growing and no one would remove them.
Sports were part of prescribed cure by the doctor. Except for week after school and the week before school I was sent off to camps. Sports, Boy Scout, and Bible. I was developing into quite the young man. I was achieved a Eagle Scout with 27 merit badges with a palm. That means I got at least 5 more than needed for Eagle. I started on a conference 10th grade both ways- tight end and defensive end. My passing catch/run average was 27 yards and I had an 83 yard touch down. In 10 th grade I started at midfield going the whole field on a semi pro lacrosse team where everyone else had graduated college. I lettered in football baseball and basketball.
But the body dysmorphia got worse as ai grew. I hated looking in the mirror. All I saw was a monster of a teenage dude instead of a cute girl. Tears would stream down my cheeks everytime I noticed growth.
I had to lift weights including hanging a 20 pound weight from my head to make my neck stronger. When I graduated high school I was 5’11”, 185 lbs., 32 waist pants 46 suit coat, 20 inch neck.
The worst,part about military school was the lack of social development. When I came home at 15 I was still a 12 year old trying to date 15 year old girls. I had a zillion first and second dates but never past that. I felt horrible because less cute and cultured guys had girlfriends. No girl in 0th grade wanted to date 7th grade boy.
I spent grades 5,6,0,11,12 and college in a Baptist perochial school while 7,8,9 at military school.
At 29 I sliced my wriest getting 35 stitches because of the dysphoria and dysmorphia. I am surprised I am still alive. I still have suicide ideation regularly.
I know you are thinking, “This dude is really effed up”.
Nope, because in my mind I am a girl. All of my issues are the result of my parents taking me to,a,psychiatrist that agreed with them and not to one that would help me.
I am a perfect example of the result of not giving puberty blockers and trying to change the innate gender of a child.
Puberty blockers give the child several years to sort out and decide if they are really transgender or not.
I finally started estrogen in 2022 after my parents died and I quit a corporate headquarters job. My body has feminized a little, but cannot un do the damage of over 50 years of testosterone. But Now I have some days of happiness because my brain is running on the correct fuel of estrogen.
I did not start estrogen because I want to be 2023 trendy and transition. I am scared shiftless of that. I never intended on transitioning. I just wanted to not have some one find my lifeless body with a turkey sized oven baking bag over my head connected to a tank of nitrogen via a hose.
That is why trans children should possibly be put on puberty blockers and this guys story has nothing to do with transgender girls struggles.
Question Renee, are you able to understand the notion of "two wrongs do not make a right"?
Also, you say "his story has nothing to do with a transgender child." and "I was reprogrammed to be a boy" and "I was sad looking in the mirror at this hairy body [...] I will give Cinderella a pass to God, but why God did you not at least make me look like Snow White.?" and "I am a better girl that all the omen I know locally except one. I am the best cook. I am wonderful at putting girls outfits. (Always start with shoes). I can out on a proper high tea party including polishing all the sterling silver, what to serve including water express sandwiches quartered with crust cut off and petite fours instead of cake." and "Nope, because in my mind I am a girl" and "I could not stop this girl ideation" " was 12 and my parents figured out I was into girl stuff" and "My hair was never allowed to grow longer than 2 inches on top and buzzed on sides. Ok, so now why are girls allowed to have long hair and not me? That added to the dysphoria. YIKES, and "Paying attention was painful because I was always looking at the girl’s outfits critiquing them. There was a lot of She should have worn the pair she had on last week."
Is this what "being a girl" means to you? Is this stuff above what you used as reference to 'realize' that you were or have always been a girl and not a boy/man/male? In which case (if yes), Are you able to understand that to many people who have always used the terms woman and girl to mean "person of female sex", and not "person who fits or enjoys feminine stereotypes or gender roles regardess of sex" the notion that you ARE a girl or have been or became one is false or nonsense yet do not hate you nor are actively trying to get you to commit self harm? And that despite that fundamental disagreement, that people like this can tolerate or even support your preference for said feminine fashion and stereotypes? That they can agree to call you Sally or Zoey instead of Bryan but still not call you she/her for the same reasons? That they can agree male bathrooms can be unsafe for you and petition for more safe unisex bathrooms but still not want you in the female ones? That it doesn't have to be "dead manly son vs alive cute daughter"? And that 'not passing' should not have to represent an inherent death sentence?
Are you also able to understand that for the same kind of people, the notion of being or becoming a "better" or "worse" or "less" or "more" of a girl depending on andherence to said stereoypes is ridiculous whether it comes from you, or another trans person or your not-trans parents or some uppity housewife or some rural indigenous shaman or the president?
Here's what it looks like to those of us who don't buy gender soul stuff nor this mainstream trans vs cis divide nor the fake trans vs real trans stuff: You were a distressed boy. The reason for that distress is complex. But at most what you could become was a transgirl, which (albeit different from your typical rowdy jock) is still a type of boy or young male child because only natal males can identify as such and you know it. But even then, you're not a transgirl nor a girl, as you transitioned past your 50s, waaaayy far from puberty or any kind of childhood, you are an adult and have been for a while so at most, a transwoman or male transsexual or a transitioned male. Which is not worthless or bad to be but still different from being a woman or girl or female, regardless if sometimes you manage to 'pass' in public or not. Whether you wanted and wished to have a 'girlhood' or not, it was always out of reach and will continue to be, both because of sex and because of age, not because of your parents or society. Same deal in opposite direction with boys vs transboys and men vs transmen. Photosynthesis, egglaying, ecolocation and flying have always been out of reach as well, but because of your specie instead.
It is true that the particularity of James (Original Poster's) body and genetic condition cannot be fully comparable to a normal body given puberty blockers, there is a nuance there that shall not be missed, especially considering his line in the post that "drugs do not perfectly mimic mother nature". The piece should be read and examined with tactful critical thinking. What is not true is that the (un)likeliness of risks of puberty blockers depends on whether the person identifies as trans or not and thus should be treated like dispensing candy or tylenol in one group and quite serious in the other, as if the blockers are mini people that will take notes and 'understand' the variation in each person's imagination and refrain from this or that consecuence accordingly. One can understand someone like you might prefer to take estrogen or wish in retrospective that you were given the option of blockers for XYZ reason without thinking you are simply "meant to be" on either case.
Regardless, I hold no doubt that the dysphoria or dysmorphia you experienced was real and painful, and wholeheartedly agree that you should not have been shoved into a hypermasculine environment nor forced to get muscular if that wasnt your inclination. Your parents also should not have told you hurtful things such as that you should die. That was psychological abuse, and it was wrong. It was most likely a result of your conservative (and possibly religious) parents feeling uncomfortable or ashamed of your gender nonconforming personality and wanting to "make you normal" through pressure when they could have understood they had an atypical male child who needed a different kind of support instead. Nonetheless you were deeply hurt and you didn't deserve that. I'm sorry.
Thank you Xanai. Well of course you are entitled to your opinion. I have been taking estrogen injections for 16 months. My brain feels like it is finally running on the right fuel. Of course puberty blockers should not be given out like a candy. I still have no idea how anyone equates that story with someone trans.
That boy did not get the hormones he wanted. That is what is it like a trans child being forced through a male puberty. It seems if anything it proves the point trans children should receive them.
Sorry for the misunderstanding I grew up in the deepest of south. My mom grew up in the delta town where Robert Johnson the Blues man was murdered with rat poison. Once my father what time was her women's luncheon. She snapped back at him they are from the south and will always be girls.
So what is your answer to the question? You accept the fact that I had a rather horrible childhood, with the dysphoria and dysmorphia. My parents spent about $200,000 adjusted for inflation trying to cure me. 10 years in conversion therapy.
As with most girls, we dream of a prom dress. The ultimate of dresses. (I skip weddings because not all want white and they do look rather all the same except details). After going to military school I was reprogrammed into total confusion. That desire for a prom dress was reprogrammed into Marine Corps dress blues. So, I went to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School while in college just so I could get a set of dress blues and an officers sword. I was off at school grades 7-9 and only 12th. graders were offices and got a sword. How effed up is that. (rhetorical question). Fortunately I did not have to take the commission. It was pretty easy. In fact much less lax than school.
When I was 29, I slit my wrist. I still have the scar from 35 stiches and it and 1 month in a exclusive private looney bin and therapy and various pills cost $80,000. That was a huge waste of money. $200,000 to cure me and $80,000 to try to save me from that cure.
I feel I am a girl inside and want to be one. Maybe I can;t and being a trans "woman" is all I can do. I will never pass. And that is ok. So again, what is your proposal for children who have dysphoria and dysmorphia as I did?
Your story is so powerful. One of the most incredible parts (to me) of “gender-affirming care” is what is happening with medical doctors, especially endocrinologists. I don’t understand how they can do and say the things that they (many, not all) are doing and saying. I can’t help but hope that someday, hopefully soon, they will be called to account.
So true. It's mind boggling. I've been saying for awhile now that lawsuits will start rolling in. Sure enough, I just read that a law firm has now been established for the sole purpose of representing men & women who have been harmed and misled by the medical community in regards to "ga care"
Please don’t drink the koolaid. His story has nothing to do with trans kids. Please read my post and answers as to the result of not giving trans kids puberty blockers and trying to change their innate gender.
Thank you for this. As a mother whose son has Klinefelter syndrome I can identify with many parts of your journey. We've been very lucky to receive the proper care from an endocrinologist who understands his condition. With blood work and close monitoring of Tanner stages, he started Testosterone at the right time to make the proper transition through puberty. I know from this lived experience, that Testosterone injections are a big deal, with powerful side effects. For him, whose body does not naturally produce enough Testosterone, he needs to supplement it for proper brain and bone development. His endocrinologist makes micro adjustments to the dosage every sex months. Testosterone is responsible for dozens of metabolic functions! Coming from this perspective, it just boggles my mind that medical professionals have interrupted natural puberty for typically developing children.
What does this and your son’s plight have to do with not giving trans children puberty blockers. Would you rather have a dead son than a living daughter?
Sir. Calm down. Read the article. The drugs that they are giving to trans identified children do medically what this man’s pituitary gland did naturally. The results of halting (or even “pausing”) a child’s healthy, natural development are bad.
And stop it with the “do you want a dead son or a living daughter” bs. If a child is suicidal the correct treatment is psychotherapy not chemical castration followed by genital reconfiguration surgery.
Look up Leelah Alcorn in Wikipedia. You are right about helping someone with sui co de ideation. But that therapy has to include what triggers the child to have S.I. If it is being trans then puberty blockers can help intil cross sex hormones can ne prescribed. I wish I could add a photo from 36 years ago I sliced up my wrist trying to kill myself. It wasnt until I started medically and socially transitioning. I have not gotten total and probably want brcause o did not get puberty blockers. I got footbal and a masculine body.
You do know kids with too young puberty are given pruberty blockers successfully.
Now tell me why blockers shoukd not be prescribed. Lots of comments but no one has refuted the truth.
They are not> They have been used for over 30 years successfully on children that started puberty at like 8 or 9 years old. Go do some research so you do not sound totally ignorant bigot.
Thank you so much for sharing this story. I hope you share this with your wider audience as we have yet another side of the debate from trying to make healthy a diseased body vs making a healthy body diseased.
Dear writer. Your story has nothing to do with a transgender child. You had a malfunctioning cis male body. Please read my two posts which actually shows what happens when you keep puberty blockers from a trans child and try to chang their innate gender.
Please explain what his story has to do with transgender children? Absolutely nothing. Lol. Read my posts on why puberty blockers should be available under the right circumstances. Read my two post as to the result of not allowing them and trying to change the innate gender of a child m
Thank you for sharing. Yes, something is deeply wrong with many endocrinologists today. I know our teen’s endocrinologist had forgotten everything she must have learned when she told our daughter (in front of me) that ‘having her uterus removed would certainly take care of all those pesky period problems’. My jaw hit the floor.
NorCal mom, OMG, I can't believe the arrogance and callousness of these "doctors"! FFS. Just like the infamous JOK saying, "if girls want breasts later, they can just go and get them". I feel we should be publicly sharing the names of these so-called "medical professionals". Do you have the emotional energy to lodge a complaint against the California Medical Board?
Reminds me of back in 1984 I was 28 my wife was pregnant with our first kid we wanted. I was working at Kaiser as a clerk in the office and had a free therapy consult so i decided to talk to a therapist about my anxiety about becoming a dad. Withn two minutes the therapist suggested i tell my wife to get an abortion. I said no thanks and walked out. My son is 38 now and a blessing in my life - a professional artist who painted the image I use for my substack.
Considering that we still have to endure this medical facility for our health insurance coverage, I can’t do anything … yet. We are leaving the state … the country, in fact next year, in order to help our daughter escape this mess. Then I will tackle this. They’ve got our hands tied!
And I forgot to add we live in CA ... which means the entire state is affirming, we are a 'sanctuary state' ... so they would likely just applaud her behavior. I never thought I'd say it but I'm glad my kid is now over 18 ... otherwise we might have CPS coming after us if we put up a stink.
Under 18 year old girls are not getting breast implants. The truth is after a male body has gone through male puberty some trans women just don’t grow breasts much. Especially older.
This is so unsettling. We heard similar things, years ago, from an endocrinologist (this one was male). Comments like that need to be called out for what they are - a broader “erasure” of women and women’s bodies.
Thank you, James. Your willingness to expose to all your most difficult and medically challenged life will help move the needle against the anti-scientific ideology of gender affirmation. You are a value added guy.
Hopefully you and others realize his story has nothing to do with a trans gender child. No med school will ever have him because he was a cis boy not a transgender girl.. read my posts and you will understand the difference. Please or else you know you talk out of puberty blockers will have a dead child. 40% of trans people try to commit suicide.
I'm sure we can support such children without resorting to irreversible life-long medical interventions and sterilization. Your argument is more in support of the medical cartel and eugenecists than children.
Lol. It should be rare. I am saying wish I could have had had puberty blockers. My brother should have as should have my half uncle. No one knows the cause of being transgender and it really does not matter unless there is a cure right? I have met thousands of people. There wewe 1000 in dorms at my college I knew every ones name. I know maybe 25 true trans women out of say he 10,000 people I know. That is a 1 in 400. I don’t know. In my high school of 200. I am sue I was only trans. Heck in 1-12. 800 I feel safe to say I was only trans. Ok so one in 800 possibly will end up transitioning. Maybe 1:in 50,000, but let those girls have puberty blockers. At least it will help the dysmorphia amd dysphoria.
The old eugenicists would force sterilize people they did not think should breed. The evil genius of it now is to convince people without them knowing, to sterilize themselves or their children.
I know a mystic who claims we switch genders every other time we are born, as in reincarnation. That seems a much healthier idea than sterilization and cutting off reproductive body parts. We are all shades of masculine and feminine by degrees. Gender dysphoria is a mass psychosis of modernity, one of many psychosis in this scientific materialist era. Hopefully we will mature out of it some day.
This is interesting and heartfelt, and I feel great sympathy for what the author went through as a child in particular. There were a couple aspects that gave me pause, though:
The part about using these drugs "just because" someone has gender dysphoria. I can only imagine how easy it would be for someone with a physical condition to struggle to understand why people with mental conditions would desire something they despise. But, I think it's important not to dismiss the suffering that can be involved in gender issues and any mental health issue (and often there is more than one at play.). That is not a suggestion that any treatment is right or wrong but simply a suggestion that there is real suffering here that people are trying to alleviate. I do not believe all the endocrinologists involved have "forgotten" the suffering they've seen in their patients with hypogonadism; I suspect they're confronted with suffering of a different sort and unsure how to address it.
Treatments for psychosis often induce diabetes, cardiac disease and early death. But I've never heard a diabetic ask why anyone would go through that "just because" they have some hallucinations and delusions. They have a serious condition for which the only current treatments come with serious side effects, and they and their treatment teams choose the lesser of the evils-and that is a subjective judgement.
Second, I do have some reservations about taking the author's condition, which is as-yet-unexplained and therefore the cause unknown, and declaring that the symptoms and outcomes will be identical to people who take these drugs. As the article points out so eloquently, drugs do not perfectly mimic mother nature. Thus, a child with a healthy hormone system whose puberty is blocked artificially may have a very different experience from the author who had an apparently totally undeveloped hormone system. Because just like the hormones, the puberty blockers simply are not going to be able to do all the things that the natural condition does. Also, because the author's underlying condition or cause is unknown, the truth is we cannot say for sure whether any or all of the effects he has suffered are due simply to blocking puberty, or whether there is some other process at play that has caused or worsened some of his issues.
For example, he discussed the lifelong effects of his learning difficulties going unaddressed at an early age (which is heartbreaking and I suspect sadly common among people of a certain generation). It sounds as though there most significant damage took place at an earlier age than that at which most gender dysphoric kids start puberty blockers. Thus, while an important part of the author's story, it's not necessarily Relevant to the subject. And we don't have any way of knowing how those issues may have created or worsened any psych issues he had at puberty or later.
In short, this is an important story, but I do hope we can resist the urge to assume that it is a prediction of what life will bring for patients who take puberty blockers (for any reason). It certainly raises a number of important issues for research, though. (This is another comment entirely but I do think quality research is the best way to turn the opinion of the majority of doctors away from early medical interventions).
Thank you for your thoughtful response to my article. I appreciate your sensitivity to the complexities of the issue.
My intent was not to downplay the suffering due to gender dysphoria but to caution against hasty medical interventions without fully understanding their long-term effects.
While my condition is still not fully understood, it is often cited by experts like Dr. Michael K. Laidlaw in discussions about puberty blockers, suggesting that there are broader implications to consider. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lckMvdTu8hw&t=1s
Moreover, I'd like to direct your attention to a peer-reviewed article that discusses the impacts of my condition, which is available here. The article outlines that one of the key issues for people like me is the struggle of not maturing alongside our peers, a sentiment that should not be taken lightly and should be thoroughly researched for those considering using puberty blockers. This is a direct connection because they pause puberty while the other kids are maturing naturally with their peers.
You lie. I have never abused a child. All Imsaid was I should have been put on puberty blockers. If I should have and I transitioned trans women on estrogen and they would have also. Few and far between there are children that need to have them.
James bless your heart you are so misguided and are mis guiding others. Your basic theory is wrong. You were a cis boy with a malfunctioning body. You had issues bedpcause you did not grow. A transgender girl me had the same issues because I grew. They are not the same. Your story is actually proof trans children under the right circumstances should be put on puberty blockers. Because the testosterone will give them the same issues you had.
This is the key. Isn't there some kind of ethical code a doctor must subscribe too that days "do no harm"? So doesn't this lead all doctors to be extemely reluctant to prescribe any treatment unless it is necessary to combat real disease that can be physically verified?
If a kid has a healtjy body in one sex but feels they want to "act" like a person of the opposite sex then why not just do that? I am an actor and I also make fashion for women. I see nothing wrong with people acting like the opposite sex. But inducing physical change with drugs or surgery i think would violate a doctors code of ethics as it IS in fact doing harm to an otherwise physically healthy body. So man up if you are a man and dress up like a lady. Put on the bra with the falsies, make up ,buy one of my dresses and flirt like a horny school girl with unsuspecting guys! Just be sure to use the MENS ROOM because thinking you are a woman sure as hell don't make you one! Www.LouisKlein.io
David wrote: “If a kid has a healtjy body in one sex but feels they want to "act" like a person of the opposite sex then why not just do that? I am an actor and I also make fashion for women. I see nothing wrong with people acting like the opposite sex.”
Totally agree. To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer. Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subiective and similarly cannot be questioned. However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which you cannot change and futile attempts to do clearly result in serious health impacts. Nor should you expect other people who are grounded in objective reality to be forced to accept your subjective version of reality.
Puberty blockers were not invented for trans kids. They were invented and approved about 40 years ago for children who were starting puberty at like 7-9 years old. You are so ignorant.
Oh how sweet and loving parent you are. You rather have a dead son than a live daughter. He was a cis boy not a trans girl. His theory is totally wrong. Please read my posts and ask feel free to ask questions.
You are an ignorant bigot. As the saying goes "Who ever smelt it, delt it." I said nothing for you to think I am a child abuser freak. So therefore it goes to say you are the child abuser freak.
Why do you act like a Karen Karen? Honestly I cannot stand kids. They do not know the difference between inside and outside. They run around like wild animals, not properly trained children EVERYWHARE!!!!
This is a straw argument, That OP was CIS! How can it be anything like a transgender child. Please explain Karen.
Your psychosis/delusion example is interesting. Presumably the treatments are given to bring the individual into a state commensurate with reality. Puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and genital surgery are prescribed to do exactly the opposite; to attempt to circumvent biological reality in order to “affirm” some sort of psychological distortion, delusion or fantasy. Exactly the opposite of your example.
Psychological distortion , delusion, or fantasy. Jeez Karen. My explanation is much simpler. How about somewhere after body forms before the brain forms some wires get crossed. ?
That's true. But as yet, we have no treatment that is proven to remedy the distortion of gender dysphoria after puberty. And even if we did, the ultimate goal with all psychiatric issues and most medical issues isn't necessarily to "remedy" the issue per se but to maximize function in general. With issues such as this one (and many other psych issues and innumerable physical ones as well) there is no golden ticket; there are negative effects to every option. Balancing the positives and negatives of all of them for the individual concerned is tricky in the best of circumstances with diagnoses like this. And the "best" choice may be very different for different individuals, which is why I am generally very leery of blanket mandatory treatment pathways for any diagnosis.
So perhaps, since there’s lots of evidence that these treatments do harm, we should stop them? Why would we perform massively invasive and irreversible treatments to affirm a psychological distortion in a population known to grow out of gender dysphoria at an 80% (at least) level? Throw in the social contagion factor and this isn’t even a close call in my opinion. And we need to ask ourselves, as a society, why an obviously maladaptive distortion (both evolutionarily and for the survival of the species) is becoming so prevalent. We should not be “affirming” it.
First off, the 80% number that gets thrown around refers only to pre-pubescent children. Once puberty sets in, it appears gender dysphoria becomes much more entrenched. Additionally those numbers are from before the demographics of gender dysphoria changed in the 2010s, so at this point we really have no idea what the typical course of this problem is.
However, even if we stick with the 80%, what about the others? Do we just throw them away? In my mind, that statistic is an argument for better assessment, much more research, and better education and monitoring of clinicians in the field. So they can better determine who will desist with age and who will not, and so they have a clear picture of how likely any given course of action is to actually improve quality of life (which should be the ultimate goal here, right?). These types of things may actually require more support-financial and institutional-for gender clinics for the time being, so that they can develop and implement rigorous research studies, outcomes monitoring and clinical programs.
Back to that 80%. It's a big number. But think of five children, all suffering mental and social anguish, and their families who are all concerned for their well being and hoping for help. Now think about telling them that you have good news: there is a cure! But only for four of them. When the other parents ask what about their child, you tell them that he's going to be sacrificed to save the other four. If we just ban any medical treatment, including in research settings, that's essentially what we are doing.
It may be a maladaptive distortion, but psychiatry in general has not advanced to be even close to being able to address all maladaptive distortions. For decades there has been a lively debate in the field about how to handle patients with severe body integrity identity disorder, who have fixed beliefs that one of their limbs doesn't belong to them and have pined for it's amputation for years with no improvement. There are physicians who would advocate for amputation after other treatments have failed, not because they don't think it's a maladaptive distortion, but because it's the best out of a few sub-par options for the patient's quality of life.
This is my last reply to you. You excel at setting up straw men, arguing against positions I haven’t taken. We should treat individuals with gender dysphoria with compassion and care and not throw incredibly complex medications and genital surgery at young people whose minds and identities haven’t matured. But what’s happening right now, in this particular time in history, is a horrifying medicalization of confused children who are put on a path of lifetime drugs, surgeries, and side effects that are completely unnecessary.
Well, just in case you deign to read this, I guess it's easy to argue you "haven't taken" a position when you make statements that are so generalized and only touch the surface, yet don't seem to think through the implications of what you're saying. But in real life we can't actually do anything with simple judgements (like saying meds etc are "completely unnecessary.") We actually have to figure out how to turn those judgements into actions and policies and so on. I am trying to think through the implications and consequences of what is said. I apologize if I misread you, my intent is not to argue over nothing, but I do want to try to challenge people to think about how what they're saying would actually play out in life.
Than you for your thoughtful answer Karen. The truth is puberty blockers have been used successfully for 30 years as a puberty blocker with success. Children from a about 9-12 who start puberty have been given puberty blockers to block puberty until about 13. It is a very rare occurrence people under 18 have surgery. It just does not happens as Fox News would like you to believe.
Medicine and surgery actually saves life’s and causes people to have a happier fuller more fulfilling life. There are many trans women who do not want to transition. They just do it because the dysphoria is unbearable. I won’t ever really fully transition nor will I probably ever be free of dysphoria. I cannot make you understand what dysphoria is any more than I can make a blind man understand what the color red is.
Hello Karen. James’ story has nothing to do with transgender children. While many “trans” kids out whatever it is because they never were really trans. Please read my other posts. I am trans and always was. I started having bender dysphoria at 4.
James was a cis male. His story should be titled. “What happens to a cis child if put on puberty blockers”.
Please read my comments. And feel free to ask any questions.
Your responses here are very balanced and thoughtful. You say, “quality research is the best way to turn the opinion of the majority of doctors away from early medical interventions.” This brings up what seems to me like an underappreciated issue in the background of current gender affirmation treatments.
In medical training the ethical idea of ‘first do no harm’ gets largely mentioned as an historical platitude, superseded by risk-benefit analysis derived from empirical methods. And this is as it must be. We have to rigorously pursue evidence-based medicine.
I think what gets lost is the core ethical wisdom underlying Hippocrates’ dictum. Modern medical practitioners are in direct lineage to ancient traditional healers, shaman, medicine men, etc. There is no point in time where ‘physicians’ cleanly crossed from the role of charismatic healer to evidence-based practitioner. You see to this very day medical consensus treatments getting ahead of the evidence base, opioids for chronic pain being a glaring example. We’ll see how it turns out, but this willingness of professional medical associations to irreversibly medicalize a presentation that has complex, and in-flux, biopsychosocial dimensions feels ethically unbalanced IMO.
I agree with much of what you wrote. I do think, though, that with any mental-psychiatric presentation in anyone of any age, it is easy for outsiders (meaning anyone who isn't the patient, even parents and close family and friends) to bemoan the irresponsible or dangerous physical consequences of medications or surgeries or other interventions, while perhaps not giving enough weight to the potentially dangerous MENTAL consequences of any given action or inaction. The author of this piece notes that despite recieving different interventions once he got older and his learning issues were properly assessed, the lack of intervention in his earlier years has had lifelong consequences that can't all be remediated now.
That's the balance that gets missed. It's so easy for us on the outside, who can't feel or know what the patient is actually suffering mentally, to say "just wait" or "do more therapy" or "don't rush into anything." And it may well be that for a majority, time and/or therapy will resolve the issue. But ethically doctors must evaluate the individual in front of them and the risks of doing nothing, along with the risks of intervention. And I would argue that we have enough old anecdotal first-hand reports to say that there are some patients who will continue to suffer severe mental distress without medical intervention. I don't think we have nearly enough information on how many, or how to determine who falls in which group.
This is a bit of an extreme example, but take childhood cancer. Some children are cured with bone marrow transplant or chemo. Other children die directly due to these treatments. But that doesn't mean the treatments should never be done... At the same time, I certainly wouldn't want my child to undergo these treatments unless I was sure there was a strong chance of severe harm or death from not doing them. Even in that case though, some children will die sooner from having treatment than they would have if the cancer had taken it's course. But, until we have better treatments, pediatric oncologists still have to do their best to figure out which option is best for each individual child. And really, most branches of medicine are like that to some degree. The ethics are nearly always impossible to pin down with a single mandatory treatment pathway for all.
In this case, I know my reply has gone a bit further than your comment did. But this is how I see the ethical dilemma here: sure, do no harm... but how to go about that when there is a chance of harm on either side? Especially when the psychology of gender dysphoria in kids is so poorly understood? Doctors who have real patients in front of them today don't have the luxury of waiting a couple decades for more research. They have to make some decision for this patient with what they have to work with now. And it's not really any individual doctor's fault that the tools we have are so rudimentary and the information so minimal.
kids under 18 should and are not having surgery unless there are rare and extinuaring circumstances. Please read my comments and perhaps you will change your mind.
I thought it was interesting that it was an intern, presumably not the author’s regular physician, who spotted unusual growth patterns and urged the author’s father to go to a pediatric endocrinology center. Just underscores the fact that it’s not always the expert who first notices a problem, and that having that novice perspective can be beneficial.
Early detection and treatment can alleviate the health complications associated with all DSDs, including Kleinfelder's and Turner's syndrome, thereby forestalling many unfavorable long-term outcomes of these disorders. Even a simple hormone test at age six or seven can pinpoint a variety of these conditions.
Amy S, This paediatrician who did not notice anything unusual about James really should have had a complaint lodged against him. Understandably, there are many things that paediatricians do not know. This should not have been one of them.
This posting is authentic and honest. As a retired pediatric specialist, I never heard this perspective. I think that anyone supporting gender-affirming care (GAC) needs to become familiar with this man's story. GAC cannot approximate any healthy, quasi-normal sexual identity and requires if chosen after age 18 years, a lifelong and open-minded counsel. psychological support. and endocrine care.
GBM, as you likely are aware, even after age 18, proper counseling is very difficult to find in the Western affirmative clown-world in which we live. We know brains aren't fully developed until one's mid-20s, perhaps later for those dealing with ADHD and/or ASD. We are truly failing these kids and young adults.
Absolutely true. No one has addressed the needs of those confused individuals over 18 years of age on Substack. Yes, it is legal but not necessarily good clinical or ethical practice to suck these people into the vacuum of affirming gender care industry. We should address this.
Thank you so much for being willing to share your story. It is powerful and telling and I hope will be widely read. I wish you a fulfilling life with many moments of joy.
This is a great story that needs to be shared by all those who think puberty blockers are harmless. Please write a book on this brave man. His life is a book
What in the heck are you talking about. He was born male wanted male puberty. I was a trans girl and I did not want to bee big and masculine. Don’t you understand?
So you took the drugs? You happy now?
No. I have a post on why this guy is wrong on so many levels. Fisrt, he was a cis boy that wanted male puberty to grow larger. I was the opposite. I was a transgender girl that did not want to go through male puberty.
My parents found out when I was 12 and took me to one of the top child psychiatrists in the east coast. He decided I could be cured if ai was put in a hyper masculine environment. I as sent off to one of the top 5 military schools in the country for 3 years until I was reprogrammed to be a boy and to keep me out of town until ai was to protect the family’s stellar reputation. (That school costs $48,000,per year.) When the memory pops in my head tears still slide down my cheeks as they are now. This was in 1970. Only 4 years after the last lobotomy. They tried to lobotomies me with out an ice pick. They tried to wipe out the girl in me instead of just accepting me as their daughter.
The weird thing is my mother taught Home Ec. You know basically a finishing course. I am a better girl that all the omen I know locally except one. I am the best cook. I am wonderful at putting girls outfits. (Always start with shoes). I can out on a proper high tea party including polishing all the sterling silver, what to serve including water express sandwiches quartered with crust cut off and petite fours instead of cake.
Sorry I digressed. I have always had body dysmorphia from going through male puberty. The grossest and most foul dog to me is a boxer because his testicles are as
Prominent as his nose. When mine showed up and started growing I was just as grossed out. It was like I had to tumors growing and no one would remove them.
Sports were part of prescribed cure by the doctor. Except for week after school and the week before school I was sent off to camps. Sports, Boy Scout, and Bible. I was developing into quite the young man. I was achieved a Eagle Scout with 27 merit badges with a palm. That means I got at least 5 more than needed for Eagle. I started on a conference 10th grade both ways- tight end and defensive end. My passing catch/run average was 27 yards and I had an 83 yard touch down. In 10 th grade I started at midfield going the whole field on a semi pro lacrosse team where everyone else had graduated college. I lettered in football baseball and basketball.
But the body dysmorphia got worse as ai grew. I hated looking in the mirror. All I saw was a monster of a teenage dude instead of a cute girl. Tears would stream down my cheeks everytime I noticed growth.
I had to lift weights including hanging a 20 pound weight from my head to make my neck stronger. When I graduated high school I was 5’11”, 185 lbs., 32 waist pants 46 suit coat, 20 inch neck.
The worst,part about military school was the lack of social development. When I came home at 15 I was still a 12 year old trying to date 15 year old girls. I had a zillion first and second dates but never past that. I felt horrible because less cute and cultured guys had girlfriends. No girl in 0th grade wanted to date 7th grade boy.
I spent grades 5,6,0,11,12 and college in a Baptist perochial school while 7,8,9 at military school.
At 29 I sliced my wriest getting 35 stitches because of the dysphoria and dysmorphia. I am surprised I am still alive. I still have suicide ideation regularly.
I know you are thinking, “This dude is really effed up”.
Nope, because in my mind I am a girl. All of my issues are the result of my parents taking me to,a,psychiatrist that agreed with them and not to one that would help me.
I am a perfect example of the result of not giving puberty blockers and trying to change the innate gender of a child.
Puberty blockers give the child several years to sort out and decide if they are really transgender or not.
I finally started estrogen in 2022 after my parents died and I quit a corporate headquarters job. My body has feminized a little, but cannot un do the damage of over 50 years of testosterone. But Now I have some days of happiness because my brain is running on the correct fuel of estrogen.
I did not start estrogen because I want to be 2023 trendy and transition. I am scared shiftless of that. I never intended on transitioning. I just wanted to not have some one find my lifeless body with a turkey sized oven baking bag over my head connected to a tank of nitrogen via a hose.
That is why trans children should possibly be put on puberty blockers and this guys story has nothing to do with transgender girls struggles.
Question Renee, are you able to understand the notion of "two wrongs do not make a right"?
Also, you say "his story has nothing to do with a transgender child." and "I was reprogrammed to be a boy" and "I was sad looking in the mirror at this hairy body [...] I will give Cinderella a pass to God, but why God did you not at least make me look like Snow White.?" and "I am a better girl that all the omen I know locally except one. I am the best cook. I am wonderful at putting girls outfits. (Always start with shoes). I can out on a proper high tea party including polishing all the sterling silver, what to serve including water express sandwiches quartered with crust cut off and petite fours instead of cake." and "Nope, because in my mind I am a girl" and "I could not stop this girl ideation" " was 12 and my parents figured out I was into girl stuff" and "My hair was never allowed to grow longer than 2 inches on top and buzzed on sides. Ok, so now why are girls allowed to have long hair and not me? That added to the dysphoria. YIKES, and "Paying attention was painful because I was always looking at the girl’s outfits critiquing them. There was a lot of She should have worn the pair she had on last week."
Is this what "being a girl" means to you? Is this stuff above what you used as reference to 'realize' that you were or have always been a girl and not a boy/man/male? In which case (if yes), Are you able to understand that to many people who have always used the terms woman and girl to mean "person of female sex", and not "person who fits or enjoys feminine stereotypes or gender roles regardess of sex" the notion that you ARE a girl or have been or became one is false or nonsense yet do not hate you nor are actively trying to get you to commit self harm? And that despite that fundamental disagreement, that people like this can tolerate or even support your preference for said feminine fashion and stereotypes? That they can agree to call you Sally or Zoey instead of Bryan but still not call you she/her for the same reasons? That they can agree male bathrooms can be unsafe for you and petition for more safe unisex bathrooms but still not want you in the female ones? That it doesn't have to be "dead manly son vs alive cute daughter"? And that 'not passing' should not have to represent an inherent death sentence?
Are you also able to understand that for the same kind of people, the notion of being or becoming a "better" or "worse" or "less" or "more" of a girl depending on andherence to said stereoypes is ridiculous whether it comes from you, or another trans person or your not-trans parents or some uppity housewife or some rural indigenous shaman or the president?
Here's what it looks like to those of us who don't buy gender soul stuff nor this mainstream trans vs cis divide nor the fake trans vs real trans stuff: You were a distressed boy. The reason for that distress is complex. But at most what you could become was a transgirl, which (albeit different from your typical rowdy jock) is still a type of boy or young male child because only natal males can identify as such and you know it. But even then, you're not a transgirl nor a girl, as you transitioned past your 50s, waaaayy far from puberty or any kind of childhood, you are an adult and have been for a while so at most, a transwoman or male transsexual or a transitioned male. Which is not worthless or bad to be but still different from being a woman or girl or female, regardless if sometimes you manage to 'pass' in public or not. Whether you wanted and wished to have a 'girlhood' or not, it was always out of reach and will continue to be, both because of sex and because of age, not because of your parents or society. Same deal in opposite direction with boys vs transboys and men vs transmen. Photosynthesis, egglaying, ecolocation and flying have always been out of reach as well, but because of your specie instead.
It is true that the particularity of James (Original Poster's) body and genetic condition cannot be fully comparable to a normal body given puberty blockers, there is a nuance there that shall not be missed, especially considering his line in the post that "drugs do not perfectly mimic mother nature". The piece should be read and examined with tactful critical thinking. What is not true is that the (un)likeliness of risks of puberty blockers depends on whether the person identifies as trans or not and thus should be treated like dispensing candy or tylenol in one group and quite serious in the other, as if the blockers are mini people that will take notes and 'understand' the variation in each person's imagination and refrain from this or that consecuence accordingly. One can understand someone like you might prefer to take estrogen or wish in retrospective that you were given the option of blockers for XYZ reason without thinking you are simply "meant to be" on either case.
Regardless, I hold no doubt that the dysphoria or dysmorphia you experienced was real and painful, and wholeheartedly agree that you should not have been shoved into a hypermasculine environment nor forced to get muscular if that wasnt your inclination. Your parents also should not have told you hurtful things such as that you should die. That was psychological abuse, and it was wrong. It was most likely a result of your conservative (and possibly religious) parents feeling uncomfortable or ashamed of your gender nonconforming personality and wanting to "make you normal" through pressure when they could have understood they had an atypical male child who needed a different kind of support instead. Nonetheless you were deeply hurt and you didn't deserve that. I'm sorry.
I think this piece might help you understand better the perspective of many (though not all) of the readers who gravitate here and a different kind of dissent: https://lisaselindavis.substack.com/p/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about
Thank you Xanai. Well of course you are entitled to your opinion. I have been taking estrogen injections for 16 months. My brain feels like it is finally running on the right fuel. Of course puberty blockers should not be given out like a candy. I still have no idea how anyone equates that story with someone trans.
That boy did not get the hormones he wanted. That is what is it like a trans child being forced through a male puberty. It seems if anything it proves the point trans children should receive them.
Sorry for the misunderstanding I grew up in the deepest of south. My mom grew up in the delta town where Robert Johnson the Blues man was murdered with rat poison. Once my father what time was her women's luncheon. She snapped back at him they are from the south and will always be girls.
So what is your answer to the question? You accept the fact that I had a rather horrible childhood, with the dysphoria and dysmorphia. My parents spent about $200,000 adjusted for inflation trying to cure me. 10 years in conversion therapy.
As with most girls, we dream of a prom dress. The ultimate of dresses. (I skip weddings because not all want white and they do look rather all the same except details). After going to military school I was reprogrammed into total confusion. That desire for a prom dress was reprogrammed into Marine Corps dress blues. So, I went to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School while in college just so I could get a set of dress blues and an officers sword. I was off at school grades 7-9 and only 12th. graders were offices and got a sword. How effed up is that. (rhetorical question). Fortunately I did not have to take the commission. It was pretty easy. In fact much less lax than school.
When I was 29, I slit my wrist. I still have the scar from 35 stiches and it and 1 month in a exclusive private looney bin and therapy and various pills cost $80,000. That was a huge waste of money. $200,000 to cure me and $80,000 to try to save me from that cure.
I feel I am a girl inside and want to be one. Maybe I can;t and being a trans "woman" is all I can do. I will never pass. And that is ok. So again, what is your proposal for children who have dysphoria and dysmorphia as I did?
Your story is so powerful. One of the most incredible parts (to me) of “gender-affirming care” is what is happening with medical doctors, especially endocrinologists. I don’t understand how they can do and say the things that they (many, not all) are doing and saying. I can’t help but hope that someday, hopefully soon, they will be called to account.
So true. It's mind boggling. I've been saying for awhile now that lawsuits will start rolling in. Sure enough, I just read that a law firm has now been established for the sole purpose of representing men & women who have been harmed and misled by the medical community in regards to "ga care"
Please don’t drink the koolaid. His story has nothing to do with trans kids. Please read my post and answers as to the result of not giving trans kids puberty blockers and trying to change their innate gender.
Thank you for this. As a mother whose son has Klinefelter syndrome I can identify with many parts of your journey. We've been very lucky to receive the proper care from an endocrinologist who understands his condition. With blood work and close monitoring of Tanner stages, he started Testosterone at the right time to make the proper transition through puberty. I know from this lived experience, that Testosterone injections are a big deal, with powerful side effects. For him, whose body does not naturally produce enough Testosterone, he needs to supplement it for proper brain and bone development. His endocrinologist makes micro adjustments to the dosage every sex months. Testosterone is responsible for dozens of metabolic functions! Coming from this perspective, it just boggles my mind that medical professionals have interrupted natural puberty for typically developing children.
What does this and your son’s plight have to do with not giving trans children puberty blockers. Would you rather have a dead son than a living daughter?
Sir. Calm down. Read the article. The drugs that they are giving to trans identified children do medically what this man’s pituitary gland did naturally. The results of halting (or even “pausing”) a child’s healthy, natural development are bad.
And stop it with the “do you want a dead son or a living daughter” bs. If a child is suicidal the correct treatment is psychotherapy not chemical castration followed by genital reconfiguration surgery.
Look up Leelah Alcorn in Wikipedia. You are right about helping someone with sui co de ideation. But that therapy has to include what triggers the child to have S.I. If it is being trans then puberty blockers can help intil cross sex hormones can ne prescribed. I wish I could add a photo from 36 years ago I sliced up my wrist trying to kill myself. It wasnt until I started medically and socially transitioning. I have not gotten total and probably want brcause o did not get puberty blockers. I got footbal and a masculine body.
You do know kids with too young puberty are given pruberty blockers successfully.
Now tell me why blockers shoukd not be prescribed. Lots of comments but no one has refuted the truth.
This guys example has proved nithing.
“Puberty blockers are disease-inducing drugs.” Indeed.
They are not> They have been used for over 30 years successfully on children that started puberty at like 8 or 9 years old. Go do some research so you do not sound totally ignorant bigot.
They are not stop spreading lies.
Wtf are you talking about. He has a malfunctioning male body. He is not a transgender child.
Thank you so much for sharing this story. I hope you share this with your wider audience as we have yet another side of the debate from trying to make healthy a diseased body vs making a healthy body diseased.
P.S. Dear Writer, Thank you for writing your story to be shared with everyone. You are an inspiration.
Dear writer. Your story has nothing to do with a transgender child. You had a malfunctioning cis male body. Please read my two posts which actually shows what happens when you keep puberty blockers from a trans child and try to chang their innate gender.
Please explain what his story has to do with transgender children? Absolutely nothing. Lol. Read my posts on why puberty blockers should be available under the right circumstances. Read my two post as to the result of not allowing them and trying to change the innate gender of a child m
Thank you for sharing. Yes, something is deeply wrong with many endocrinologists today. I know our teen’s endocrinologist had forgotten everything she must have learned when she told our daughter (in front of me) that ‘having her uterus removed would certainly take care of all those pesky period problems’. My jaw hit the floor.
NorCal mom, OMG, I can't believe the arrogance and callousness of these "doctors"! FFS. Just like the infamous JOK saying, "if girls want breasts later, they can just go and get them". I feel we should be publicly sharing the names of these so-called "medical professionals". Do you have the emotional energy to lodge a complaint against the California Medical Board?
Reminds me of back in 1984 I was 28 my wife was pregnant with our first kid we wanted. I was working at Kaiser as a clerk in the office and had a free therapy consult so i decided to talk to a therapist about my anxiety about becoming a dad. Withn two minutes the therapist suggested i tell my wife to get an abortion. I said no thanks and walked out. My son is 38 now and a blessing in my life - a professional artist who painted the image I use for my substack.
DavidLK - What a terrible therapist. Sounds like yet another incompetent "medical professional".
Considering that we still have to endure this medical facility for our health insurance coverage, I can’t do anything … yet. We are leaving the state … the country, in fact next year, in order to help our daughter escape this mess. Then I will tackle this. They’ve got our hands tied!
And I forgot to add we live in CA ... which means the entire state is affirming, we are a 'sanctuary state' ... so they would likely just applaud her behavior. I never thought I'd say it but I'm glad my kid is now over 18 ... otherwise we might have CPS coming after us if we put up a stink.
NorCal - Yes, California has gone off the rails on this issue.
Under 18 year old girls are not getting breast implants. The truth is after a male body has gone through male puberty some trans women just don’t grow breasts much. Especially older.
This is so unsettling. We heard similar things, years ago, from an endocrinologist (this one was male). Comments like that need to be called out for what they are - a broader “erasure” of women and women’s bodies.
The uterus has nothing to do with producing hormones-- you're thinking ovaries.
Tell that to the endocrinologist. Those were her words verbatim.
Thank you, James. Your willingness to expose to all your most difficult and medically challenged life will help move the needle against the anti-scientific ideology of gender affirmation. You are a value added guy.
Hopefully someday you will do a speaking tour through America's medical schools.
Hopefully you and others realize his story has nothing to do with a trans gender child. No med school will ever have him because he was a cis boy not a transgender girl.. read my posts and you will understand the difference. Please or else you know you talk out of puberty blockers will have a dead child. 40% of trans people try to commit suicide.
I'm sure we can support such children without resorting to irreversible life-long medical interventions and sterilization. Your argument is more in support of the medical cartel and eugenecists than children.
Lol. It should be rare. I am saying wish I could have had had puberty blockers. My brother should have as should have my half uncle. No one knows the cause of being transgender and it really does not matter unless there is a cure right? I have met thousands of people. There wewe 1000 in dorms at my college I knew every ones name. I know maybe 25 true trans women out of say he 10,000 people I know. That is a 1 in 400. I don’t know. In my high school of 200. I am sue I was only trans. Heck in 1-12. 800 I feel safe to say I was only trans. Ok so one in 800 possibly will end up transitioning. Maybe 1:in 50,000, but let those girls have puberty blockers. At least it will help the dysmorphia amd dysphoria.
The old eugenicists would force sterilize people they did not think should breed. The evil genius of it now is to convince people without them knowing, to sterilize themselves or their children.
I know a mystic who claims we switch genders every other time we are born, as in reincarnation. That seems a much healthier idea than sterilization and cutting off reproductive body parts. We are all shades of masculine and feminine by degrees. Gender dysphoria is a mass psychosis of modernity, one of many psychosis in this scientific materialist era. Hopefully we will mature out of it some day.
I disagree. Some of us just choose not to.. I could be a grandparent.
Facinated to learn that the immune system won't develop without puberty. Thank you for sharing, I'll be sure t do the same!
Many things develop with puberty.
This is interesting and heartfelt, and I feel great sympathy for what the author went through as a child in particular. There were a couple aspects that gave me pause, though:
The part about using these drugs "just because" someone has gender dysphoria. I can only imagine how easy it would be for someone with a physical condition to struggle to understand why people with mental conditions would desire something they despise. But, I think it's important not to dismiss the suffering that can be involved in gender issues and any mental health issue (and often there is more than one at play.). That is not a suggestion that any treatment is right or wrong but simply a suggestion that there is real suffering here that people are trying to alleviate. I do not believe all the endocrinologists involved have "forgotten" the suffering they've seen in their patients with hypogonadism; I suspect they're confronted with suffering of a different sort and unsure how to address it.
Treatments for psychosis often induce diabetes, cardiac disease and early death. But I've never heard a diabetic ask why anyone would go through that "just because" they have some hallucinations and delusions. They have a serious condition for which the only current treatments come with serious side effects, and they and their treatment teams choose the lesser of the evils-and that is a subjective judgement.
Second, I do have some reservations about taking the author's condition, which is as-yet-unexplained and therefore the cause unknown, and declaring that the symptoms and outcomes will be identical to people who take these drugs. As the article points out so eloquently, drugs do not perfectly mimic mother nature. Thus, a child with a healthy hormone system whose puberty is blocked artificially may have a very different experience from the author who had an apparently totally undeveloped hormone system. Because just like the hormones, the puberty blockers simply are not going to be able to do all the things that the natural condition does. Also, because the author's underlying condition or cause is unknown, the truth is we cannot say for sure whether any or all of the effects he has suffered are due simply to blocking puberty, or whether there is some other process at play that has caused or worsened some of his issues.
For example, he discussed the lifelong effects of his learning difficulties going unaddressed at an early age (which is heartbreaking and I suspect sadly common among people of a certain generation). It sounds as though there most significant damage took place at an earlier age than that at which most gender dysphoric kids start puberty blockers. Thus, while an important part of the author's story, it's not necessarily Relevant to the subject. And we don't have any way of knowing how those issues may have created or worsened any psych issues he had at puberty or later.
In short, this is an important story, but I do hope we can resist the urge to assume that it is a prediction of what life will bring for patients who take puberty blockers (for any reason). It certainly raises a number of important issues for research, though. (This is another comment entirely but I do think quality research is the best way to turn the opinion of the majority of doctors away from early medical interventions).
Thank you for your thoughtful response to my article. I appreciate your sensitivity to the complexities of the issue.
My intent was not to downplay the suffering due to gender dysphoria but to caution against hasty medical interventions without fully understanding their long-term effects.
While my condition is still not fully understood, it is often cited by experts like Dr. Michael K. Laidlaw in discussions about puberty blockers, suggesting that there are broader implications to consider. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lckMvdTu8hw&t=1s
Moreover, I'd like to direct your attention to a peer-reviewed article that discusses the impacts of my condition, which is available here. The article outlines that one of the key issues for people like me is the struggle of not maturing alongside our peers, a sentiment that should not be taken lightly and should be thoroughly researched for those considering using puberty blockers. This is a direct connection because they pause puberty while the other kids are maturing naturally with their peers.
article. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380912/
I agree that quality research is essential, and my story serves as a call for that.
Your comments add valuable depth to the conversation, and I appreciate your engagement.
excellent and respected argumentation! I really appreciate James' approach.
Lol that has nothing to do with trans gender kids. HE WAS CIS! Jeez. Read my posts please.
Child abuser .
You lie. I have never abused a child. All Imsaid was I should have been put on puberty blockers. If I should have and I transitioned trans women on estrogen and they would have also. Few and far between there are children that need to have them.
It does not! How can you lie. You were a male. That body did not form. That is like making a trans girl go through male puberty.
James bless your heart you are so misguided and are mis guiding others. Your basic theory is wrong. You were a cis boy with a malfunctioning body. You had issues bedpcause you did not grow. A transgender girl me had the same issues because I grew. They are not the same. Your story is actually proof trans children under the right circumstances should be put on puberty blockers. Because the testosterone will give them the same issues you had.
How can you not see that? Please explain.
There is no sane condition under which children should take puberty blockers to stop their natural maturation. None.
The idea that this is "health care" is morally and epistemologically insane.
There's no "nuance" to it.
This is the key. Isn't there some kind of ethical code a doctor must subscribe too that days "do no harm"? So doesn't this lead all doctors to be extemely reluctant to prescribe any treatment unless it is necessary to combat real disease that can be physically verified?
If a kid has a healtjy body in one sex but feels they want to "act" like a person of the opposite sex then why not just do that? I am an actor and I also make fashion for women. I see nothing wrong with people acting like the opposite sex. But inducing physical change with drugs or surgery i think would violate a doctors code of ethics as it IS in fact doing harm to an otherwise physically healthy body. So man up if you are a man and dress up like a lady. Put on the bra with the falsies, make up ,buy one of my dresses and flirt like a horny school girl with unsuspecting guys! Just be sure to use the MENS ROOM because thinking you are a woman sure as hell don't make you one! Www.LouisKlein.io
David wrote: “If a kid has a healtjy body in one sex but feels they want to "act" like a person of the opposite sex then why not just do that? I am an actor and I also make fashion for women. I see nothing wrong with people acting like the opposite sex.”
Totally agree. To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer. Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subiective and similarly cannot be questioned. However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which you cannot change and futile attempts to do clearly result in serious health impacts. Nor should you expect other people who are grounded in objective reality to be forced to accept your subjective version of reality.
Puberty blockers were not invented for trans kids. They were invented and approved about 40 years ago for children who were starting puberty at like 7-9 years old. You are so ignorant.
Oh how sweet and loving parent you are. You rather have a dead son than a live daughter. He was a cis boy not a trans girl. His theory is totally wrong. Please read my posts and ask feel free to ask questions.
Renee you abusive nut. Freak . Child abuser.
You're a man, "Renee". A man with a psychological disturbance. Stay away from children.
You are an ignorant bigot. As the saying goes "Who ever smelt it, delt it." I said nothing for you to think I am a child abuser freak. So therefore it goes to say you are the child abuser freak.
Exactly.
Your Exactly. Just because you agree with them does not mean they are right. Lol. You are funny.
Why do you act like a Karen Karen? Honestly I cannot stand kids. They do not know the difference between inside and outside. They run around like wild animals, not properly trained children EVERYWHARE!!!!
This is a straw argument, That OP was CIS! How can it be anything like a transgender child. Please explain Karen.
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Your exactly remark see above. Lol
Your psychosis/delusion example is interesting. Presumably the treatments are given to bring the individual into a state commensurate with reality. Puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and genital surgery are prescribed to do exactly the opposite; to attempt to circumvent biological reality in order to “affirm” some sort of psychological distortion, delusion or fantasy. Exactly the opposite of your example.
Psychological distortion , delusion, or fantasy. Jeez Karen. My explanation is much simpler. How about somewhere after body forms before the brain forms some wires get crossed. ?
That's true. But as yet, we have no treatment that is proven to remedy the distortion of gender dysphoria after puberty. And even if we did, the ultimate goal with all psychiatric issues and most medical issues isn't necessarily to "remedy" the issue per se but to maximize function in general. With issues such as this one (and many other psych issues and innumerable physical ones as well) there is no golden ticket; there are negative effects to every option. Balancing the positives and negatives of all of them for the individual concerned is tricky in the best of circumstances with diagnoses like this. And the "best" choice may be very different for different individuals, which is why I am generally very leery of blanket mandatory treatment pathways for any diagnosis.
So perhaps, since there’s lots of evidence that these treatments do harm, we should stop them? Why would we perform massively invasive and irreversible treatments to affirm a psychological distortion in a population known to grow out of gender dysphoria at an 80% (at least) level? Throw in the social contagion factor and this isn’t even a close call in my opinion. And we need to ask ourselves, as a society, why an obviously maladaptive distortion (both evolutionarily and for the survival of the species) is becoming so prevalent. We should not be “affirming” it.
First off, the 80% number that gets thrown around refers only to pre-pubescent children. Once puberty sets in, it appears gender dysphoria becomes much more entrenched. Additionally those numbers are from before the demographics of gender dysphoria changed in the 2010s, so at this point we really have no idea what the typical course of this problem is.
However, even if we stick with the 80%, what about the others? Do we just throw them away? In my mind, that statistic is an argument for better assessment, much more research, and better education and monitoring of clinicians in the field. So they can better determine who will desist with age and who will not, and so they have a clear picture of how likely any given course of action is to actually improve quality of life (which should be the ultimate goal here, right?). These types of things may actually require more support-financial and institutional-for gender clinics for the time being, so that they can develop and implement rigorous research studies, outcomes monitoring and clinical programs.
Back to that 80%. It's a big number. But think of five children, all suffering mental and social anguish, and their families who are all concerned for their well being and hoping for help. Now think about telling them that you have good news: there is a cure! But only for four of them. When the other parents ask what about their child, you tell them that he's going to be sacrificed to save the other four. If we just ban any medical treatment, including in research settings, that's essentially what we are doing.
It may be a maladaptive distortion, but psychiatry in general has not advanced to be even close to being able to address all maladaptive distortions. For decades there has been a lively debate in the field about how to handle patients with severe body integrity identity disorder, who have fixed beliefs that one of their limbs doesn't belong to them and have pined for it's amputation for years with no improvement. There are physicians who would advocate for amputation after other treatments have failed, not because they don't think it's a maladaptive distortion, but because it's the best out of a few sub-par options for the patient's quality of life.
This is my last reply to you. You excel at setting up straw men, arguing against positions I haven’t taken. We should treat individuals with gender dysphoria with compassion and care and not throw incredibly complex medications and genital surgery at young people whose minds and identities haven’t matured. But what’s happening right now, in this particular time in history, is a horrifying medicalization of confused children who are put on a path of lifetime drugs, surgeries, and side effects that are completely unnecessary.
Well, just in case you deign to read this, I guess it's easy to argue you "haven't taken" a position when you make statements that are so generalized and only touch the surface, yet don't seem to think through the implications of what you're saying. But in real life we can't actually do anything with simple judgements (like saying meds etc are "completely unnecessary.") We actually have to figure out how to turn those judgements into actions and policies and so on. I am trying to think through the implications and consequences of what is said. I apologize if I misread you, my intent is not to argue over nothing, but I do want to try to challenge people to think about how what they're saying would actually play out in life.
She's not reachable Karen.
Than you for your thoughtful answer Karen. The truth is puberty blockers have been used successfully for 30 years as a puberty blocker with success. Children from a about 9-12 who start puberty have been given puberty blockers to block puberty until about 13. It is a very rare occurrence people under 18 have surgery. It just does not happens as Fox News would like you to believe.
Medicine and surgery actually saves life’s and causes people to have a happier fuller more fulfilling life. There are many trans women who do not want to transition. They just do it because the dysphoria is unbearable. I won’t ever really fully transition nor will I probably ever be free of dysphoria. I cannot make you understand what dysphoria is any more than I can make a blind man understand what the color red is.
Hello Karen. James’ story has nothing to do with transgender children. While many “trans” kids out whatever it is because they never were really trans. Please read my other posts. I am trans and always was. I started having bender dysphoria at 4.
James was a cis male. His story should be titled. “What happens to a cis child if put on puberty blockers”.
Please read my comments. And feel free to ask any questions.
Exactly. Why people on here are playing armchair endocrinologist, I have no idea.
None of these people are trans and have not even known one. Except me.
Thank you for this take.
Your responses here are very balanced and thoughtful. You say, “quality research is the best way to turn the opinion of the majority of doctors away from early medical interventions.” This brings up what seems to me like an underappreciated issue in the background of current gender affirmation treatments.
In medical training the ethical idea of ‘first do no harm’ gets largely mentioned as an historical platitude, superseded by risk-benefit analysis derived from empirical methods. And this is as it must be. We have to rigorously pursue evidence-based medicine.
I think what gets lost is the core ethical wisdom underlying Hippocrates’ dictum. Modern medical practitioners are in direct lineage to ancient traditional healers, shaman, medicine men, etc. There is no point in time where ‘physicians’ cleanly crossed from the role of charismatic healer to evidence-based practitioner. You see to this very day medical consensus treatments getting ahead of the evidence base, opioids for chronic pain being a glaring example. We’ll see how it turns out, but this willingness of professional medical associations to irreversibly medicalize a presentation that has complex, and in-flux, biopsychosocial dimensions feels ethically unbalanced IMO.
I agree with much of what you wrote. I do think, though, that with any mental-psychiatric presentation in anyone of any age, it is easy for outsiders (meaning anyone who isn't the patient, even parents and close family and friends) to bemoan the irresponsible or dangerous physical consequences of medications or surgeries or other interventions, while perhaps not giving enough weight to the potentially dangerous MENTAL consequences of any given action or inaction. The author of this piece notes that despite recieving different interventions once he got older and his learning issues were properly assessed, the lack of intervention in his earlier years has had lifelong consequences that can't all be remediated now.
That's the balance that gets missed. It's so easy for us on the outside, who can't feel or know what the patient is actually suffering mentally, to say "just wait" or "do more therapy" or "don't rush into anything." And it may well be that for a majority, time and/or therapy will resolve the issue. But ethically doctors must evaluate the individual in front of them and the risks of doing nothing, along with the risks of intervention. And I would argue that we have enough old anecdotal first-hand reports to say that there are some patients who will continue to suffer severe mental distress without medical intervention. I don't think we have nearly enough information on how many, or how to determine who falls in which group.
This is a bit of an extreme example, but take childhood cancer. Some children are cured with bone marrow transplant or chemo. Other children die directly due to these treatments. But that doesn't mean the treatments should never be done... At the same time, I certainly wouldn't want my child to undergo these treatments unless I was sure there was a strong chance of severe harm or death from not doing them. Even in that case though, some children will die sooner from having treatment than they would have if the cancer had taken it's course. But, until we have better treatments, pediatric oncologists still have to do their best to figure out which option is best for each individual child. And really, most branches of medicine are like that to some degree. The ethics are nearly always impossible to pin down with a single mandatory treatment pathway for all.
In this case, I know my reply has gone a bit further than your comment did. But this is how I see the ethical dilemma here: sure, do no harm... but how to go about that when there is a chance of harm on either side? Especially when the psychology of gender dysphoria in kids is so poorly understood? Doctors who have real patients in front of them today don't have the luxury of waiting a couple decades for more research. They have to make some decision for this patient with what they have to work with now. And it's not really any individual doctor's fault that the tools we have are so rudimentary and the information so minimal.
kids under 18 should and are not having surgery unless there are rare and extinuaring circumstances. Please read my comments and perhaps you will change your mind.
You're lying and you know you're lying.
You are a man, too.
Yep born a male. What do you think I am lying about.
I thought it was interesting that it was an intern, presumably not the author’s regular physician, who spotted unusual growth patterns and urged the author’s father to go to a pediatric endocrinology center. Just underscores the fact that it’s not always the expert who first notices a problem, and that having that novice perspective can be beneficial.
Early detection and treatment can alleviate the health complications associated with all DSDs, including Kleinfelder's and Turner's syndrome, thereby forestalling many unfavorable long-term outcomes of these disorders. Even a simple hormone test at age six or seven can pinpoint a variety of these conditions.
Amy S, This paediatrician who did not notice anything unusual about James really should have had a complaint lodged against him. Understandably, there are many things that paediatricians do not know. This should not have been one of them.
This posting is authentic and honest. As a retired pediatric specialist, I never heard this perspective. I think that anyone supporting gender-affirming care (GAC) needs to become familiar with this man's story. GAC cannot approximate any healthy, quasi-normal sexual identity and requires if chosen after age 18 years, a lifelong and open-minded counsel. psychological support. and endocrine care.
GBM, as you likely are aware, even after age 18, proper counseling is very difficult to find in the Western affirmative clown-world in which we live. We know brains aren't fully developed until one's mid-20s, perhaps later for those dealing with ADHD and/or ASD. We are truly failing these kids and young adults.
Absolutely true. No one has addressed the needs of those confused individuals over 18 years of age on Substack. Yes, it is legal but not necessarily good clinical or ethical practice to suck these people into the vacuum of affirming gender care industry. We should address this.
Thank you for sharing your story... it should serve as a wake up call for many people. ❤️
Thank you for sharing, I hope this story will reach a wide audience as these stories need to be heard.
Thank you so much for being willing to share your story. It is powerful and telling and I hope will be widely read. I wish you a fulfilling life with many moments of joy.
Dear James, thank-you for sharing your personal story with a wider audience. All the best to you.