by Walt Heyer
One controversial treatment for children with gender dysphoria is the administration of drugs called hormone blockers to delay puberty. The practice is gaining traction without any scientific proof that it is appropriate or effective, and despite the evidence that it can be harmful:
- Most children with gender dysphoria will not remain gender dysphoric after puberty. [1]
- The FDA has not approved hormone blockers for use in transgender children—not even for experimental use.
- A search for one hormone blocker, Lupron, shows that people are reporting serious long-term, debilitating side effects from having used the drug.
Given these facts, why would anyone inject these drugs into children?
Doctors and parents want to help the child cope with the distress he or she is experiencing. Is relief of adolescent distress really worth the risk?
Most will grow out of the dysphoria. Isn’t there some way to work through the distress than experimenting on our children?
[1] J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2008 Dec;47(12):1413-23. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e31818956b9., “Psychosexual outcome of gender-dysphoric children”, Wallien MS, Cohen-Kettenis PT., Department of Medical Psychology, Graduate School of Neurosciences, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands