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How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired

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Re: How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired

#3

Post by koralatov »

I've written and rewritten a comment for this thread several times now, but every time I get close to posting it, I feel obliged to go back and revise it.

The simple truth is that, given how toxic and charged a lot of the activism is around this topic, I don't feel able to make any kind of substantive comment that won't be misinterpreted, deliberately or otherwise, and used to pillior me.

Re: How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired

#4

Post by bruceb »

"In 2016, there’s fairly solid agreement about the proper course of treatment for otherwise healthy, stable young people who have persistent gender dysphoria, and who are either approaching puberty or older than that: You help them transition to their true gender. The process is different from person to person, but for an 11-year-old, it might include a round of puberty-blocking hormones to prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics and buy time to figure out the best course of transition, followed by the administration of male or female hormones, and, later on, possibly sex-reassignment surgery or surgeries."

Giving an 11 year-old hormones...

Re: How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired

#7

Post by jlebrech »

You can't give children counselling, you just have to give them the meds and convert them into the gender they want to be.

There's no balance, in some cases it could be psychological and a hormone imbalance (of the childs current gender)

In a few years they'll flip flop in the other direction, when children will be denied reassignment, and it'll start all over again.

Also this could be dangerous to some in adult life, like telling a partner you used to be a boy as a child.

Re: How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired

#8

Post by vidarh »

bruceb wrote: post #4

"In 2016, there’s fairly solid agreement about the proper course of treatment for otherwise healthy, stable young people who have persistent gender dysphoria, and who are either approaching puberty or older than that: You help them transition to their true gender. The process is different from person to person, but for an 11-year-old, it might include a round of puberty-blocking hormones to prevent the development of…

Your point being? In this case it is hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty, to essentially "buy time" until the patient can competently make a decision on more invasive transitioning.

This is reversible (just stop taking the drugs), and for young people with gender dysphoria, the onset of puberty can be extremely traumatic and often triggers a range of sometimes severely self-destructive behaviour, and so delaying puberty is for many seen as by far the safest and best option.

Re: How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired

#9

Post by SeanDav »

I can't help thinking that there really is a large element of adults applying adult values to children here.

> "...research suggests that most gender-dysphoric kids will, in the long run, end up identifying as cisgender."

If this really is true, then the approach offered by Dr Zucker makes far more sense to me - to allow the child to make up his/her own mind over time and provide an understanding and sympathetic environment to do it in, rather than immediately treating the child as the opposite sex the moment they express doubt at age 5.

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