June 26, 2024

"Health officials in the Biden administration pressed an international group of medical experts to remove age limits for adolescent surgeries from guidelines for care of transgender minors..."

"... according to newly unsealed court documents. Age minimums, officials feared, could fuel growing political opposition to such treatments.... If and when teenagers should be allowed to undergo transgender treatments and surgeries has become a raging debate within the political world.... The draft guidelines, released in late 2021, recommended lowering the age minimums to 14 for hormonal treatments, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries, and 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies. The proposed age limits were eliminated in the final guidelines outlining standards of care, spurring concerns within the international group and with outside experts as to why the age proposals had vanished.... One excerpt... stated that [assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel] Levine 'was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults, too. Apparently the situation in the U.S.A. is terrible and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them.'"

From "Biden Officials Pushed to Remove Age Limits for Trans Surgery, Documents Show/Newly released emails from an influential group issuing transgender medical guidelines indicate that U.S. health officials lobbied to remove age minimums for surgery in minors because of concerns over political fallout" (NYT).

79 comments:

Dave Begley said...

The standard of care is not set by an international group of liberal so-called experts. The standard of care is established by a jury after competing experts give their opinions.

The Nebraska standard of care will be set if the case of Luka Hein v. UNMC Physicians goes to trial. And I think it will go to trial.

John Borell said...

So go ahead and mutiliate minors, I guess.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

She (sic)

He (sick)

MadisonMan said...

"Health Officials"
Okay. Let's pump artificial chemicals into a growing 14-yo. Whatever could go wrong?
Democrats should run loudly on this view. They should campaign on it, all the time. I'm so sure this is the path to victory!

mindnumbrobot said...

One excerpt... stated that [assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel] Levine 'was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults...

This is what happens when you put the mentally ill in positions of power.

n.n said...

Levine's Dreams of Herr Mengele.

Ambrose said...

A lot of what the left does is idiotic, this medication and mutalation of children is truly evil.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Therapeutic intervention to change a gay/lesbian child's orientation is illegal in most of the US. In California, for example, SB 1172 section 865.1. Under no circumstances shall a mental health provider engage in sexual orientation change efforts with a patient under 18 years of age.

"Imposing medical transgender therapeutic abuse on children, both psychiatric and physical, is a simple de-facto effort to affect alteration of their sexual orientation. As one can change object coordinates in space with a mirror transformation - left becomes right and so-forth - this is an analogous mirror-like sexual transformation applied to a child. It occurs by imposing a medically dubious treatment of public behavior reinforcement, chemical castration and disfiguring surgery to create an ersatz image of the child’s physical and emotional context to “the opposite sex”. The term of art is trans the gay away.

All clinics, school resources, therapists, doctors, social media personalities, and parents who participate in pre-18 affirmation abuse in any way are in clear violation of applicable laws."

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Monsters. History will judge them like the evil bastards that conducted the Tuskegee Experiment. Not to mention it really puts a crimp in our push to reverse depopulation. Effing Paul Erlich is getting his way without ever having won the argument.

Achilles said...

One of the greatest accomplishments of the United States as a historical movement was to make pedophilia taboo.

Most of the world is a terrible place where children are raped on a daily basis and this has been true throughout history.

It is time to reinforce this taboo.

The people pushing the trans garbage are trying to return the world to a more primitive ruling class structure.

They have to go.

BobJustBob said...

How about we start withh how old they need to be to get a tattoo?

Dave Begley said...

I'm thinking of going to the Ralston, Nebraska Independence Day Parade and really giving it to the Dem politicians who voted for child mutilation.

Not Nebraska nice, but I don't care.

Skeptical Voter said...

No doubt the real preferred age limit for Team Biden is, "Has the patient graduated from kindergarten"? If so, cut away. These people are curs and poltroons.

Leland said...

I consider these people no different from the “health care officials” that forced sterilization in the 20th Century,

Darcy said...

I pray that Luka Hein v. UNMC Physicians does go to trial, Dave Begley. There are many of these cases conveniently not being reported.

Old and slow said...

This is an evil movement. There is little else to say. It is just so very wrong.

Enigma said...

Humans existed for millions of years before surgery and transgender surgery was possible. Sex reassignments were tried in the 1970s, but these usually ended with suicides and/or reversals by the 1980s. Then, in 2010 Obamacare was "deemed passed" by hundreds of congressional cowards and insurance companies were forced to pay for sex reassignment.

Suddenly, the notions of mental illness, maturity, and psychological adjustment became obsolete. Doctors with severe conflicts of interest now get paid to mutilate children who have no life experience and no clue about consequences. And they gaslight children for a quick payday. "I gotta make my BMW payment...I need more cannon fodder..."

Never forget that Vanderbilt University staff admitted to corruption and bullying:


The posts included a video of one VUMC doctor in 2018 saying these “types of surgeries bring in a lot of money” and later saying that female-to-male bottom surgeries are “huge money makers.” A separate video shows another staffer warning that if employees do not want to participate in transgender treatments then they “probably shouldn't work at Vanderbilt," and warned that objections should be met with “consequences.”


https://health.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2022-09-22/governor-wants-probe-of-vandy-hospital-after-doctor-touts-trans-procedures-are-money-makers

n.n said...

In California... under no circumstances shall a mental health provider engage in sexual orientation change efforts with a patient under 18 years of age.

Some transgender orientations are more politically congruent ("=") than others. That said, all's fair in lust and abortion.

wendybar said...

Mengele in America. Vote wiser.

n.n said...

Planned Penishood... Pelvishood... scalping and carving for a gay old day with a liberal license to progress back to a socially conservative past.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Broke: "The science is settled."
Woke: "The science is forcibly resettled."

Wa St Blogger said...

The left has been wrong about every major social and political issue over the last 45 years. The level of pain and destruction is heartbreaking. They think they are being compassionate because they find some cause where it looks like someone is being oppressed, then they pump it full of steroids and appeal the the weak minded. When sane people point out the obvious downside they vilify them. IF you are not acting specifically to dismantle this system, you are complicity. Not enough just to tsk tsk.

Aggie said...

Herr Mengele and (Her) Mengele.


You know how a street criminal caught by an outraged crowd sometimes gets a little bloodied up by the time the police get there? More 'primitive ruling class structures' sometimes get the job done.

Stay away from my kids.

Robert Cook said...

Any elective medical procedure(s) that will (or may) wreak dramatic and possibly irrevocable alterations to the patient, (physically, emotionally, or both), should be PROHIBITED by law until the patient becomes a legal adult and thereby legally responsible and (presumably) intellectually competent to comprehend and accept the life-changing ramifications, positive and/or negative, resulting from his or her decision to undergo the altering procedure(s).

Robert Cook said...

"The left has been wrong about every major social and political issue over the last 45 years."

If it pleases you to think so...but, no.

Dude1394 said...

Josef Mengele smiles at his new Democrat Socialist NAZI Party

The Drill SGT said...

Robert Cook said...
Any elective medical procedure(s) that will (or may) wreak dramatic and possibly irrevocable alterations

I don't often agree with you, but you are correct. I would add, the patient should pay for it, not taxpayers

Robert Cook said...

"Sex reassignments were tried in the 1970s, but these usually ended with suicides and/or reversals by the 1980s."

Sex reassignment surgeries go back somewhat longer than that. Christine Jorgensen, an American soldier, underwent sex reassignment surgeries in Denmark in 1952. Various types of sex reassignment procedures have been performed as far back as the 7th Century, (and possibly the 2nd). (See "History" and "20th Century" in the linked article.)

Narr said...

American imperialism, straight up.

Wa St Blogger said...

If it pleases you to think so...but, no.
I posted a non-exhaustive list inviting submissions a few days back. No one seemed inclined to disabuse me of that notion.

But I am glad you spoke up about this issue. There are plenty of issues the left and right can agree on. This should be one of them.

Michael said...

But all fifty states disallow tattoos for any under 18. See. Because tattoos are permanent.

tolkein said...

Teenagers are not adults. They're not mature. Adult maturity is around age 25.
So why are officials - experts no doubt - permitting drastic surgery and medication for non adults?

I assume there's serious money at stake in trans surgery/medication, as well as ideology/activism. That explains why, but not why it should be inflicted on non adults, particularly as there is increasing evidence (if asked, I'll go back and cite)that trans butchery/medication is associated with increased suicides (not fewer) and more trauma for those non adults on whom it was inflicted.

If it is to be legal, then only for adults.

CJinPA said...

The draft guidelines, released in late 2021, recommended lowering the age minimums to 14 for hormonal treatments, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries, and 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies.

How much older did you have to be BEFORE this change?

Does the article mention Levine is trans?

Yancey Ward said...

Levine is someone who literally needs to be hanging from a lamppost.

Jupiter said...

"She asked us to remove them.'"

Actually, Rachel Levine is a man. And I don't believe he has asked anyone to remove them.

What a monster.

Temujin said...

You put a Rachel Levine in a position of authority, you get 'Rachel Levine' level decisions affecting your children and your families.

The most feckless administration in my lifetime. These are not public servants. They are all full-time activists and nothing more.

Ampersand said...

Rachel Levine and the Biden Administration are merely carrying forward the great tradition inaugurated by the unfairly maligned Caligula. After Caligula had killed his second wife Poppea, he was so overcome by remorse that he searched for a lookalike replacement. He found a young boy named Sporus, had him castrated, and declared in AD 66 that Sporus was the Roman Empress.
So, you see, the Biden Administration has ample historical precedent for it's wise transgender policies. All hail the new Caligula!

Joe Smith said...

Fucking monsters.

How again do these doctors differ from Mengele?

Hassayamper said...

Diabolical. In future this era will be compared to Dr. Mengele, frontal lobotomies, and the Tuskegee syphilis experiments.

n.n said...

Actually, Rachel Levine is a man.

It's a man, man
h/t Austin Powers

the Biden Administration has ample historical precedent for it's wise transgender policies. All hail the new Caligula!

The ancient Greeks would rape... sodomize their boys, and girls, to force them to take a knee.

Darkisland said...

Blogger Robert Cook said...

Any elective medical procedure(s)

I agree with you about prohibiting it. As do most Americans. But you leave a huge barn door open.

So do you believe that puberty blockers for kids are "elective" procedure?

n.n said...

Sanger's influence on National Socialists, Democrats, too.

#CecileTheCannibal

Gosnell the butcher.

Levine's Dreams... Biden as Caligula.

The circle of progress.

Darcy said...

If you voted or vote for this administration, the butchering of children for profit and the pain they endure from it for the rest of their lives is on you.

I am continually grateful the sickos who support such evil are mostly against having children. Good. Let them die off.

mikee said...

I, for one, appreciate that the list of political ghafla has been used for so long that now we have to use this utterly insignificant (in terms of numbers) issue as a distraction from the real issues of politics in the US. Oh, for the days when both sides could use only abortion or just gun control or even simple Russian expansionism to distract us from the rest of the political class's utter failures in domestic and foreign affairs. Now they have to use all those AND something utterly sensationalized like this to keep anyone from noticing the entire world is racing to immolation of civilization, with them urging only acceleration of the process.

Hey, 2 million will die in Sudan in the next year, mostly because nobody cares except the people doing the civil war there. China might kill another 10 million of their people, or maybe 2 million Taiwanese, to keep their kleptomaniac Party in office, if they can't keep their economy from failing and killing 50 million in its collapse. Russia might need a Colonel to put Putin against a wall and shoot him after a Ceaucescu-like trial, to prevent the nuking of Kyiv. But hey, spend your time on this, because it is for the children.

Mary Beth said...

I don't even want to think about how bad it would have been if 15 or 16-year-old me had been able to make permanent life choices - and none of the choices I would have made then would have been as permanent as these surgeries are.

I found gender dysphoria to be more believable when it was rare. Now it looks more like a social contagion like anorexia or cutting. I think it's a symptom rather than the real problem.

doctrev said...

Awww, thanks Greatest Ally Robert Levine. What would children who need mutilation and abortion do without disgusting freaks like you around?

tolkein said...

It was Nero, not Caligula, if that story is correct. Poppaea was a (beautiful, by repute) wife of Nero, who ordered her divorced from Otho (one of the four emperors) so he could marry her.

mccullough said...

Amy Barrett says this was an independent decision by a Board of Experts.

Nothing is Traceable to the Biden Administration.

doctrev said...

Sorry, Althouse, but he's Robert Levine and an absolutely evil man. No sugar coating that.

narciso said...

They want to butcher children and you wzng to talk about putin who was enabldd by this administration which is compromised to the chinese

narciso said...

Want and enabled the same administration wants to imprison doctors for calling this put

But back to world war trans as rankin put it

effinayright said...

Mikee said:

But hey, spend your time on this, because it is for the children.
******************

Mikee, I challenge you to perform this experiment:

Put a stick of gum in your mouth and begin chewing it.

While chewing, try walking forward.

Could you do both?

FullMoon said...

Too young to drive, to join military, to buy a beer, but mature enough to slice your tits off.

I am glad some of the old relatives have died and are not around to see what is happening.

n.n said...

I thought it was Nero who fiddled, while Caligula diddled...

n.n said...

but mature enough to slice your tits off

Of females "=" males, and carve [front] holes in males "=" females. Back... black holes... whores h/t NAACP are common to both sexes. The lust for wielding scalpels, vacuums, etc, in Progressive sects cannot be underestimated.

Wince said...

Did you really expect Levine to heed Bill Maher's advice to put away the "dick saw"?

Robert Cook said...

"So do you believe that puberty blockers for kids are 'elective' procedure?"

Unless someone can make a convincing argument to the contrary, yes. One significant difference between puberty blockers treatment and surgical procedures to alter the already present physical sexual indicators of gender, (genitals, breasts in women), the changes wrought by puberty blockers can be undone simply by ceasing ingestion of the puberty blockers, (or am I mistaken?).

I think that an adolescent who feels compelled to take puberty blockers in order to stave off their sexual maturation should be permitted to do so, if their families agree and are supportive and sign off on it.

I don't know about today's practices, but in the early days of sexual reassignment surgeries, those seeking the procedures were required to live for a period of time, (months? years?, I don't know), dressing and grooming themselves as the gender they felt themselves to be. This "living as the other gender" without having physical alterations gave the patients the opportunity to discover if living as the new gender was truly workable for them, satisfying and conducive to their happiness and comfort. Some who went through this "pretend" period decided NOT to pursue actual physical reassignment. Allowing adolescents to take puberty blockers might be part of this same sort of "trying out" life as the gender they see themselves to be. Again, I don't think any person should be permitted to undergo actual surgical alterations until they are responsible, legal adults.

Enigma said...

@Robert Cook: Unless someone can make a convincing argument to the contrary, yes. One significant difference between puberty blockers treatment and surgical procedures to alter the already present physical sexual indicators of gender, (genitals, breasts in women), the changes wrought by puberty blockers can be undone simply by ceasing ingestion of the puberty blockers, (or am I mistaken?).

You are mistaken. Puberty is a pre-programmed growth and development period. Back in the day the Italians castrated young boys so their voices would stay high as opera singers. Low testosterone = no manhood, just lifelong boyhood. See what happens to pet male dogs that get "fixed" as puppies -- they always act like puppies rather than adult dogs. Women receiving hysterectomies often keep their ovaries to maintain hormones and preserve adult female characteristics too. No hormones = a stunted and ABNORMAL animal lifecycle. This is a very very very very simple fact.

The human body is programmed to grow in size, develop functional genitals with puberty, reproduce, and then die. Age predicts male pattern baldness and presbyopia (far sightedness; reading glasses at age 50) and testosterone levels too. You can never make up a missed growth period -- see copious research on interracial differences in IQ correlated with the genetically programmed onset of puberty.

I don't know about today's practices, but in the early days of sexual reassignment surgeries, those seeking the procedures were required to live for a period of time, (months? years?, I don't know), dressing and grooming themselves as the gender they felt themselves to be.

There are many recent news stories about quick and easy access to drugs and surgery, and doctors eager for the next fee. A search engine is your friend.

Ampersand said...

Many thanks to Tolkien at 1219 for correcting me. It was indeed the Emperor Nero, not Caligula, that the Biden Administration is trying to emulate. Clearly, they are not fiddling around. All hail the neo-Nero!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Unless someone can make a convincing argument to the contrary, yes. One significant difference between puberty blockers treatment and surgical procedures to alter the already present physical sexual indicators of gender, (genitals, breasts in women), the changes wrought by puberty blockers can be undone simply by ceasing ingestion of the puberty blockers, (or am I mistaken?).

You are mistaken, plus they affect bone formation, fertility, mammary development and a host of other natural transitions that take place between the start of puberty and adulthood.

One more tiny disagreement with your otherwise excellent statement at 9:46 this morning: Either we push these procedures back to 21 like smoking and drinking to give the mind and emotions a little more time to sort things out, or go whole hog with 18 being the age of majority and allow liquor and cigarettes. I strongly lean toward pushing all of this back to 21, but then I am a conservative. My main argument is the age of emotional maturity is often not fully reached at 18, by is pretty well-developed by 21 on average.

Darcy said...

Have you done any research regarding BigPharma's "puberty blockers", Robert Cook? Do you regard them as purely delaying puberty? If so, you are mistaken.

It is not okay to be naïve.

Dude1394 said...

"Blogger tolkein said...
Teenagers are not adults. They're not mature. Adult maturity is around age 25.
So why are officials - experts no doubt - permitting drastic surgery and medication for non adults?"

They are groomers.

Oligonicella said...

Robert Cook:
One significant difference between puberty blockers treatment and surgical procedures to alter the already present physical sexual indicators of gender, (genitals, breasts in women), the changes wrought by puberty blockers can be undone simply by ceasing ingestion of the puberty blockers, (or am I mistaken?).

You are mistaken.

Endocrinologist Michael Laidlaw from Rocklin, Calif., noted that children in the study who took puberty blockers exhibited significantly less bone density than their peers. That causes stunted height and puts them at greater risk for osteoporosis and fractures in adulthood, he said.

Given the study’s findings that nearly all children who take puberty blockers end up on cross-sex hormones, it is clear that the drugs do more than give children time to pause to consider their gender identity.

Cross-sex hormones carry side effects including sterility, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and increased risk of breast and uterus cancers, and other harmful psychoactive effects of high-dose hormones such as mood swings and even psychosis, Laidlaw said.

Jim at said...

As others have said, I can't believe this is the hill the left is willing to die on.

But it is.
And they will.

The Godfather said...

I'm a lawyer, so that's the tool-set I tend to use to address problems. I propose that a law be enacted in every State providing that any person who (as a minor) was subjected to irreversible surgery or other treatment that impaired such person's ability to function as a member of his or her sex at birth [definitions will need to be provided], shall have a cause of action for damages, including punitive (treble) damages, against the person or persons conducting such surgery or treatment and the institution within which such surgery or treatment was provided. The statute of limitations for bringing such action shall be 10 years after the plaintiff achieves the age of majority in the jurisdiction. Parental consent will NOT be a defense. More drafting details are needed, but that's the idea. You need to scare the shit out of the insurance companies.

J L Oliver said...

Nero was weird and queer, but Emperor Elagabalus was the queerest. Planned on castrating himself for Baal, for who he was a high priest. Syrian mom

Iman said...

An Army of Mengeles

Greg the Class Traitor said...

One excerpt... stated that [assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel] Levine 'was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults, too.

Really? There were age limits over the age of 18?

Are these people really as stupid as they appear to be?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Godfather, they need to be able to sue their parents, too.

As well as ANY adult who encouraged their "transition", such as school teachers.

No corporate viel, no qualified immunity (or any other sort of immunity)..

If you support drugging people or putting them under the knife, and they later realize it was a bad idea, you should have your life destroyed, too.

gilbar said...

the "puberty blockers are reversible" theory is full of interestingness

a) it was on mice, not humans.. AND STATED, IN THE STUDY, that it'd be wrong to assume for humans
b) IT WAS FOR ONLY FOUR WEEKS! that's RIGHT! it said they were reversible, when taken for 4 weeks!
c) NO DATA on longer treatments (just like NO DATA on human treatment)
BUT WAIT! There's MORE!
d) the mice resumed the sexual development after treatment stopped (thus, 'reversible!')..BUT!
....i) sex organs were smaller than control mice
...ii) 'some' of the mice had smaller litters, and 'some' of the mice were sterile!
..iii) MOST of the mice used the exercise wheel less, and HAD GREATER BODY MASS!

so! ANYONE should be COMPLETELY AT EASE putting their children on these drugs, because
THEY ARE COMPLETELY REVERSIBLE!! (in mice, if only used for 4 weeks, and IF you not mind:
smaller sex organs
smaller litters, possible sterility
reduced activity levels, and INCREASED BODY MASS

https://www.physiology.org/detail/news/2024/04/05/study-bolsters-evidence-that-effects-of-puberty-blockers-are-reversible?SSO=Y

gilbar said...

but WAIT! there's EVEN MORE!!
https://nypost.com/2022/10/07/boston-childrens-hospital-says-kids-know-theyre-trans-from-the-womb-in-deleted-video/
Boston Children’s Hospital says kids know they’re trans ‘from the womb’ in now-deleted video

THAT'S RIGHT!
According to Boston Children’s Hospital.. (before realizing WHAT they were saying, and deleting it)..
FETUSES ARE Children!
Children that KNOW THEIR OWN GENDER!!
Children that are HUMAN BEINGS! and Should Be Permitted To CHOOSE THEIR OWN GENDER!
Children that are HUMAN BEINGS! and Should Be Permitted to LIVE
you can SEE WHY they deleted the video, once they thought it through : )

Mrs Whatsit said...

The monstrous hypocrisy of Levine, as shown in "The Free Press":

"Levine said that she’s grateful that transition was not available when she was a teenager. 'If I had transitioned when I was young, then I wouldn’t have my children,' Levine said at a 2019 meeting of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. 'I can’t imagine a life without my children.'

Joe Smith said...

'As others have said, I can't believe this is the hill the left is willing to die on.'

They're willing to die on every hill.

That's why they win...

n.n said...

Most children outgrow so-called gender dysphoria. A majority who receive gender (i.e. sex-correlated attributes) denial treatment are permanently harmed. A great majority are either harmed or experience no benefit. The minority who may be helped will suffer with forward-looking injuries. There is no way to predict who will be in each cohort. Gender corruption is another wicked solution with profit motives. No medical treatments are otherwise affected by restricting this particular service.

Enigma said...

@Blogger n.n: Doubtful.
In the past, there was simply no hormone therapy or medical treatment, so they plodded on without receiving care...


What was the suicide rate back then? Please also check the historical suicide rates of deep in-the-closet gay and lesbian people too. [I do know.]

When society revolved around face-to-face social clubs (e.g., Shriners, Masons, Elk lodges, etc.), churches, pubs, and literal cracker barrel chats, people had a ton of social support to work through problems. Depression and mental illness is hugely worsened by social isolation and the fully non-evolutionary Brave New World of 24/7/365 radio, TV, and web social media technology.

When an economic system rewards predation and dysfunction, selfish, passive-aggressive, lazy, and unstable people will exploit the system for personal gain. Consider the evolved behaviors of many, many, many plants and animals such as the parasitic nest thief Cuckoo bird, how Frigate birds steal food from other animals, how plants evolved poisons and thorns, how insects and snakes evolved venom, etc.

Conversion therapy MAY improve lives, but there's little to no unbiased data. But, there is a ton of horrifying suicide data on transgendered people. Research funded by NIH or NIMH means the authors are controlled by government/ideological filters. Government research that touches on politics is often as useless as old USSR state research, or in your thinking, the government now duplicates Catholic medieval 'science.'

You say there is no holding back Josef Mengele and his quack concentration camp science? Bullsh*t. A huge percentage of all science in history has been wrong and overturned. I'm looking for Vital Force and Phlogiston. You can't stop Vital Force. You can't stop Phlogiston.

BS. BS. BS.

n.n said...

@Enigma

The clinical research on, not trans/homosexuals, but trans/neos, was done some forty years ago at Johns Hopkins. Do you support gender denial therapy? Modern transposition of sex and gender?

Robert Cook said...

Regarding several replies to a post of mine above, if puberty blockers do cause permanent damage (physically or emotionally) to those who take them, even if they later cease the treatments, then I concur that adolescents should not be permitted to take them, even if approved by their families.

However...this article states the treatments are safe and reversible. This statement by the Mayo Clinic echos that view, though it does list possible "side effects and complications." Here is an article that does assert and describe harms from transgender interventions, including puberty blockers.

So, it seems there is a difference of views on the matter. This represents only three of, I'm sure, many sources presenting similarly disparate assessments of the harms that may (or may not) result from puberty blockers/transgender interventions. The third of these sources does name many organizations worldwide who consider such treatments as "experimental and dangerous."

So, I can't be as definite here as I am regarding actual surgeries to alter the bodies of young people. At the least, the families of adolescents who seek puberty blockers should inform themselves thoroughly in as many studies and position papers as they can find to become aware of the preponderance of medical opinion--backed by statistics on the positive and negative outcomes--of the benefits and/or dangers before they decide to approve such treatments for their children.

Enigma said...

@Robert Cook: So, I can't be as definite here as I am regarding actual surgeries to alter the bodies of young people.

Poisons do not alter bodies but kill. Ingesting heroin or opioids does not involve surgery but routinely leads to addiction and sometimes death. See today's Supreme Court rejection of Purdue Pharma $6 Billion settlement.

Putting a watermelon in a box and forcing it to grow into a cube is not surgical. But it is not reversible in any fashion. Childhood is a unique period in the lifecycle of any organism. This was taken as dead obvious a generation ago, before gender transitions became a passive-aggressive social manipulation tool and politicized. I fully blame Obamacare's corrupting insurance payouts (post-2010) for the recent gender mumbo jumbo (@n.n).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_watermelon


Critical periods in growth:

https://news.mit.edu/2018/cognitive-scientists-define-critical-period-learning-language-0501

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559801/

https://www.simplypsychology.org/critical-period.html

https://www.verywellmind.com/critical-period-in-brain-development-definition-importance-7556041

Keith said...

I work as a subspecialist surgeon. I say this not to brag but just as background that I was trained at elite institutions for medical school, residency, and fellowship. In my specialty's elite journals I find fewer and fewer articles to inform us as to interesting science and how to manage patients and more and more articles every month to inform us that we are racist and sexist and homophobic. My subspecialty is historically immune to political correctness and yet DEI now infects our journals and institutions.

During Covid I was particularly interested in the effects of masks on transmission. I don't want to go into too much detail - this is not a post for that - but the science was atrocious.

At some point it becomes clear that there is "real" science and then there is politically correct science. If there is a field that studies something politically controversial it seems that something besides science is supporting an agenda. We saw explicitly with climate science with the climategate emails that the gatekeepers of the major journals colluded to reject any paper that questioned the status quo and they refused to release their data so skeptics could evaluate their papers. I don't say this as a crank - their emails were released and they agreed not to release data and agreed not to publish anyone who is skeptical.

With that known, and as seems obvious that the people behind this movement are activists first, it seems to me none of the science, so-called, can be trusted as science.

In the old days certainly there were trans-sexuals, and they were a very small number and this number was stable. Suddenly over the course of a few years as Hollywood and the education system celebrated trans-sexuals, the numbers exploded. One must ask - is this an organic explosion of trans-sexuals or is it that this is celebrated and becomes a bit transgressive and appealing? Another thought is that it is never the hot cheerleader who has boys ogling over her or the most popular boy who all the girls want who turn out to be transgender. It is the loners who don't seem to fit in, who are depressed, who don't have friends and who don't have parties. The emo people and the cutters. Not the captains of the football teams. In that case, as nearly all of them seem to be depressed or at least not to be psychically healthy, doesn't it seem obvious that psychiatric help should be maximized before any other consideration? If the leaders of this movement say "would you rather have a live daughter or a dead son," if they believe this teenager is going to commit suicide, doesn't that - by definition - mean he is psychiatric quite ill and needs psychiatric help? And in that case, if the problem is psychiatric but you misdiagnose and cut off his penis, you would have treated the wrong problem and you would expect the suicide and self-harm rate to be undiminished. Which is what we see - the suicide rate seems undiminished after treatment. In that case, a thoughtful doctor would say if I treat problem X with treatment X and there is no improvement, either I have the wrong diagnosis or the wrong treatment. They are treating the wrong problem. The problem is not breasts and penises. The problem is significant psychiatric illness that is untreated in a rush to be edgy and the special doctor and the special center that takes care of this.

Horrific.