1y ago

Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England says

www.thepinknews.com

Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at NHS England gender identity clinics in a new “blow” to gender-affirming healthcare.

Puberty blockers are a type of medicine that prevent puberty from starting by blocking the hormones – like testosterone and oestrogen – that lead to puberty-related changes in the body. In the case of trans youth, this can delay unwanted physical changes like menstruation, breast growth, voice changes or facial hair growth.

On Tuesday (12 March), NHS England confirmed the medicine, which has been described as “life-saving” medical care for trans youth, will only be available to young people as part of clinical research trials.

The government described the move as a “landmark decision”, Sky News reported. It believed such a move is in the “best interests of the child”.

United Kingdom @feddit.uk

LainTrain @lemmy.dbzer0.com

1y ago

Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England says

www.thepinknews.com /2024/03/12/trans-puberty-blockers-nhs-england-prescribe-gender-affirming-healthcare/

LGBTQ+ @lemmy.blahaj.zone

squirrel @lemmy.blahaj.zone

1y ago

Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England says

www.thepinknews.com /2024/03/12/trans-puberty-blockers-nhs-england-prescribe-gender-affirming-healthcare/

200 comments

God damn Tories. What do they know about “best interests of the child” that a doctor doesn't already know? Less than nothing is the answer.
If a young person is suffering from gender dysmorphia to the point of considering gender affirmation procedures, then I think it'd be in their best interest to not exacerbate that condition. Delaying the onset of puberty via puberty blockers until they're at the age where that can legally consent to such procedures isn't exactly novel.
Even if they eventually decide not to undergo those procedures, all you habr to do is take them off the blockers and they'd undergo puberty as normal. There's not all that much downside for an awful lot of upside for those in need.
- What you fail to take into account is the pink haired lesbian man haters dragging kids into alleyways and stopping them from having puberty. This is a totally real thing. A child can't even walk to school without being accosted by pink haired lesbian man haters armed with syringes and a copy of a Dworkin book.
- Even if they eventually decide not to undergo those procedures, all you habr to do is take them off the blockers and they'd undergo puberty as normal. There's not all that much downside for an awful lot of upside for those in need.
  Is that actually true? Do those medications actually permanently prevent puberty after a certain point?
  
  There are side effects last I looked, people like to pretend their aren’t, even fucking ibuprofen has side effects.
  So idk, it depends on how bad maybe?
  
  No, barring some other condition, puberty resumes once you stop using puberty blockers. There are increasing risks of side effects when staying on puberty blockers for more than a couple years, so it's usually a temporary measure to give children with gender dysphoria more time to explore their identity without subjecting them to the irreversible effects of puberty yet. As a result, doctors won't allow a patient to stay on puberty blockers permanently (barring outliers where it would actually be safer to do so, e.g. because of cancer risk associated with sex hormones). There are two typical outcomes:
  The patient determines that they would like to transition medically, and will transition from puberty blockers to hormone replacement therapy according to their goals. This essentially allows them to replace the pubertal effects typically associated with their birth sex with something else depending on the regimen.
  The patient determines that they don't want to transition medically, and stops puberty blockers without starting hormone replacement therapy. At this point, puberty begins/resumes on its own as usual.
- Even if they eventually decide not to undergo those procedures, all you habr to do is take them off the blockers and they'd undergo puberty as normal. There's not all that much downside for an awful lot of upside for those in need.
  Oh, don't worry. Statistically, people who start puberty blockers almost always go on to receive hormone therapy as adults, so you don't really have to worry about people deciding not to continue. It's definitely* because of the medicine that they go on to do HRT, and not because the kids that are getting through the bullshit to actually start blockers are the kids who are almost 100% guaranteed to be trans. Don't think too hard and it'll all just go away.
- Doctors can be manipulated to support an agenda, too.
  They used to classify homosexuality as a mental disorder, for example.
  They also used to recommend lobotomies as treatment for unruly wives.
  Do you think there are no instances of doctors being manipulated or corrupt in the current day? They of course have a profit incentive to get as much business as possible. It's why you seen cosmetic surgeons lie through their teeth to manipulate vulnerable people into giving them money.
  
  Doctors still have a lot more experience of what works than Conservative politicians do. And if you took "it must be impossible for any doctor ever to abuse this power for corrupt ends" as the standard for approving a treatment, no treatments would ever get approved.
  
  Doctors can be thrown in jail for supporting unnecessary care. How do I throw politicians in jail for blocking necessary care?
  
  Ah yes and it was famously the politicians that showed them the light. Not other doctors conducting research and presenting evidence.
  Politicians certainly never had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century of medicine.
- Bullshit. Source or it didn't happen.
  
  seen doctors force sex change to children that lead to the child killing themselves in adulthood
  Why do transphobes lie all the fucking time? Like, is there something wrong with your brain preventing you from not lying?
  
  Transition surgeries have among the lowest regret rates for any kind of surgery. They are life saving.
  
  Good thing puberty blockers aren’t a fucking sex change. Even if your almost certainly bullshit comment was true, it still as relevant to puberty blockers as birth control pills are to abortion; related, but a completely different function.
  
  Puberty is a sex change forced on all children by their own hormones. Just because it matches the sex they were assigned at birth doesn't mean it doesn't force radical physical changes. It's stressful even for cis kids, and can lead trans kids towards suicide.
  Blocking it postpones the permanent physical changes until the person is old enough to make a rational decision whether to have (less extreme needed) medical intervention to achieve a physical appearance that matches the sex they weren't assigned at birth, or to stop taking the blockers and allow their assigned sexual characteristics to develop.
  Anyone who thinks doctors are pushing trans surgeries should be in favor of puberty blockers.
  
  I've seen space vampires enslave circus clowns in a plot to corner the world's market on instant ramen, too.
  Source: Trust me bro.
  
  I’m sure then you’ve also seen the basement of Cosmic Pizza
  
  No you fucking haven't.
  
  Even assuming it is true,
  would that person kill themselves regardless or even earlier?
  doctors are people sure, but at least they have medical training, and supposed to focus on the interest of the patient, as opposed to politicians, who are focused on satisfying their constituents.
  
  That is complete bullshit and you know it. What's your source? Prove it or it didn't happen.
  
  I've seen space vampires enslave circus clowns in a plot to corner the world's market on instant ramen, too.
  Source: Trust me bro.
  
  Agreed. That's a very rational take to have on these forums.
  Most people here get mad at you if you don't show unwavering, blind support for their tribe.
Oh, great. Vulnerable children and desperate parents searching for prescription medication on the black market. What could go wrong?
Mission accomplished.
Right wing conservatives can go pound sand. Talk about the government pushing itself between a doctor and patient care.
A landmark bullshit decision.
All right wingers want for Christmas is increased suicidality of anyone unlike themselves
- Or probably more accurately if you look at right wing scandals, people that think similarly to them but are brave enough to live their truth and not try to hide behind a bible and pay their reality away.
  Conservatives are cowards. They mainline fear 24/7, they feel list without it.
  
  Conservatives are cowards. They mainline fear 24/7, they feel list without it.
  Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
Best interest of the child my ass. I knew and know so many trans kids that suffer(ed) so much from such awful transphobic laws.
That's just purely disgusting and will have horrible consequences for so many people. I am so sorry for every trans kid in England that suffers from this. :(
- 40 years of Hollyweird / Music Industry / Olympics trainer agents pumping their youngest stars full of this shit in order to squeeze an extra year or two of revenue out of them? Fine. Cool. Good. No problems detected.
  Some trans youth have a legitimate medical need for deferring puberty, while they come to terms with their gender and sexuality? Fuck you. Prohibited. Go directly to jail.
  
  its almost like the weirdo hollywood guys are in league with the weirdo religious guys.
So does this also apply to precocious puberty or is this purely a fuck you to trans people?
- They're going to have to pull an Alabama and do some matching legal and mental gymnastics.
- You see, every other problem in the UK has been solved, so now all they have left is fucking with people who just want to be happy in their own body.
  
  Right-wingers pick on minorities precisely because they have no plans for how to improve life for people in general, and in fact not the slightest interest in doing so. If they were honest about that, no one would vote for them, so they have to invent scapegoats and distractions. Somehow it's easy to persuade a lot of people that some entirely made up problem is the most urgent, such as some minority coming to destroy their "way of life", and thereby distract them from all the actual problems you have caused for them.
  Right wing politics is always privileged sociopaths duping the gullible and ignorant.
- It's specifically for gender identity clinics so only applies to trans kids
- It will be specific to diagnosis codes.
Time to start some really large clinical trials.
Which wouldn't be a bad idea anyway, tracking long-term outcomes.
- GnRH was discovered in 1971, and has been available since the '80s. We have a pretty good idea of their long term effects. There could be more about effects on transgender youth in particular, but everything done so far shows it's safe.
  
  I'm reading about migraines, joint pain, hot flashes/sweating, decreased libido (which I would expect to take place during treatment) persisting for months after discontinuing use of GnRH. I'm also reading that it can worsen diabetes and osteoporosis?
  Idk, to say that it's without risk is false I think.
- It's been around since the 80s, we already know long term outcomes.
  
  Um, excuse me, who said 40 years was long enough? If we don't have trials that show how people receiving these drugs turned out all the way until they died then we don't really have long term trials, do we?
  /s
  It's such a fucking cop out. Nothing will ever be good enough for some people.
TERF island strikes again
I dont want to speak to the social aspect of this issue, but I have to imagine that blocking puberty has some crazy side effects. How long has this medical technology been in use and where can I find studies about it? Again, I know this is sensitive and I am just curious from a biological standpoint.
- blocking puberty has some crazy side effects.
  I'm a provider at a children's hospital. I specialize in orthopedics and rehabilitation, so I mostly deal with the musculoskeletal system. I have colleagues who would be able to provide a much better and more in depth explanation, but I will do my best.
  Even in orthopedics "hormone blockers" are used fairly frequently. For example the same drugs that people use to transition are utilized to moderate the epiphyseal fusion of growth plates. Puberty is also frequently delayed to moderate the hormone levels of juvenile cancer patients. Or even more increasingly common, to halt the symptoms of precocious puberty in young women.
  The vast majority of juveniles prescribed hormones to delay puberty are for non gender affirming care like cancer. The problem with moderating what medical providers can and can't treat is that you are assuming you know more about medicine than the a person who went to medical school.
  You may be trying to protect kids, but what ends up happening is an interference of medical care, and usually not the type you intended. If hormone drugs become more monitored, providers may be hesitant, or have a more difficult brine prescribing it.
  The dangers of delaying puberty are very small, when you stop the prescription puberty begins again. Usually the only side effect is excessive growth due to a delay if epiphyseal fusion. In regards to gender affirming care, I will remind people that their providers are looking at total outcomes. Meaning they are factoring in things like the higher potentiality of self harm and suicide.
  
  Thank you for your reply! This is good information
  
  That's why I browse Lemmy. Thank you.
  
  refers to self as provider
  Definitely not a doctor.
- Precocious puberty has been a thing forever and the first medications for delaying it by regulating hormones have been around since the 1980s. I think that should be the jumping off point for research. However afaik the same sorts of drugs are also commonly used to treat cancer in adults.
  Here is an article about their use in treating trans people with links to various studies https://transfemscience.org/articles/puberty-blockers/
  
  Thank you for the info and link! I will read up
- How long has this medical technology been in use and where can I find studies about it?
  Decades. It was there when I was a kid, so like 20 years ago. And it wasn't new medical technology at the time.
- I have to imagine that blocking puberty has some crazy side effects.
  Sort of the joke. Puberty is what has the crazy side effects.
- It reduces bone density. Not to unhealthy levels in teens, but there are concerns the lower baseline will increase osteoporosis risk when the patients get to old age.
  They can also only be used for a couple of years. Some non-binary people want to be on them permanently, but doctors won't prescribe that. Some kids want more time to decide, and unfortunately there isn't anything safe to use through the full teenage years.
- It has very few side effects and is completely reversible.
- The side effects and risks are worth it when you only get one shot at puberty. If you don't transition as a pre-pubescent teenager, you will never "pass" as well, especially as a transwoman.
  A really good example of how successful you can be if you're early is Corey Maison. There are cases of transition regret of course, but they're still a very small percentage of the total, and that percentage is reduced by puberty blockers giving young people more time to figure out themselves and their own bodies, and to make the choice that's right for them.
  
  Yeah, that's the gravity of things that people don't seem to understand. Yes, there can be unwanted side effects from puberty blockers, but they are relatively minor. On the other hand, one possible side effect for people that are willing to brave those puberty blocker side effects but aren't allowed to do so is suicide. This is unfortunately often life or death.
- There's some studies that found that bone density could be affected, but considering the suicide rate of trans people I'm going to say that's a tiny sacrifice for the assurance that you can have the body your brain wants to be in.
- Discovered in 1971, and introduced for medical use in the 1980s.
  "Where can I find studies about it"?
  Have you tried perhaps, idk, a search engine? How do I have a feeling that even if I were to show you the science which agrees that they are safe medications, you'd have an "argument" in which you criticise the info without even reading it.
  People perfectly well know how to look for things online, and when they pretend not to... well, it smells fishy. Fishy, like sealions.
  
  You seem really unpleasant. Good luck out there, friend.
  
  your accusation of bad faith is, itself, bad faith
- That is not what I am saying or implying, as I do not have any information on the subject. Please do not put words in my mouth.
I thought quackery was illegal, but apparently not when it's *fundamentalists in politics.
*Fundamentalists as in fundamentally sociopaths.
Whoever decided this can shove a cactus up somewhere.
Fuck you for hurting the most vulnerable;
disgusting decision by disgusting people.
- You might wanna rephrase your second sentence
  
  Just needs a semi-colon instead of a comma.
  
  As a non native speaker the honest question, why?
welcome to TERF island
Another Tory L as usual.
Can’t wait till the day comes when they’re out of the gov for good.
- You confident that blue Labour will reverse this policy?
  
  Prob not tbh but since how bad everything is atm, any change at this point is better than none at this rate.
It's all part of the NHS War On Mental Health. The plan is remove treatments that conservatives don't believe in because they can't see them. They will take those savings and use them to extend the lives of terminally ill people in persistent vegetative states because life is sacred and needs to be protracted and painful.
Just when I though the UK couldn't disappoint any further.
I wonder what the statistics are of "trans youth" figuring out they're actually not trans as they get older.
- I was going to downvote and move on, but instead...
  I have family and friends that are trans, so I have been able to kind of follow their outcomes over the years.
  Human gender identity and sexuality does seem to fluctuate somewhat, but it doesn't seem to me to be random. Some people fully identify as one gender but like to perform as a different one. Other people don't vary at all. In cases where people "change their mind", it's usually because they get discouraged about being able to successfully transition, or they experience severe harassment/workplace discrimination. Just in my anecdotal experience, it's never because they just randomly decide they no longer want to be trans
  No one is getting permanent gender affirmation treatment until they are old enough to know and have been in discussions with doctors for years. I'm sure there are exceptions where some poor 5 year olds parent(s) treated them without medical oversight but it's not common and no one wants this.
- So you don't have to wonder anymore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexual#Regrets_and_detransitions
- I'm assuming you're asking in good faith. I found this type of question to be especially controversial due to the legislation against gender-affirming care, especially puberty blockers. In researching further:
  As others have stated, cases where permanent gender-affirming care was given, such as HRT (hormone therapy) and GRS (genital reconfiguration surgery), instances of regret are incredibly rare, and almost always predicated by lack of support for the individual. They are far outnumbered by instances of trans people undergoing puberty incompatible with their gender, which is itself damaging and irreversible.
  The type of care discussed in this article, GnRH (puberty blockers), has been shown to not have long term consequences, and is only used to delay puberty and the potential long term effects, giving them enough time to make an informed decision about their transition. From the Mayo Clinic:
  GnRH analogues don't cause permanent physical changes. Instead, they pause puberty. That offers a chance to explore gender identity. It also gives youth and their families time to plan for the psychological, medical, developmental, social and legal issues that may lie ahead..
  When a person stops taking GnRH analogues, puberty starts again.
- Extremely uncommon. But on the off chance it happens, they just stop taking the puberty blockers and everything proceeds as normal.
- Basically non-existant but of course when it does happen it gets repeated over and over again. The main reason why anybody detransitions is because of how they get treated during their transition.
- This is not only wrong but directly the opposite of the truth
  
  I take it you have a source you can link to?
Christo-fascists run too many gov'ts
Great Britain should be renamed as Terf Island. Make it descriptive.
- Nah, they prefer prescriptivism. Actually, Terf Island still makes sense from that lens.
  I'm not sure, but there's a descriptivism/prescriptivism joke in there somewhere.
- This has nothing to do with the will of the people
  
  Sure. Voting isn't a thing in the UK
Right wing twats trying their best to destroy as many children as they can
We know so little about the actual process of gender dysphoria. Hormone blockers don't solve or fix anything, but have been used simply because it's the only thing that does something. Essentially bringing a blunt instrument to the problem.
Considering the harmful nature of hormone blockers, I'm for not prescribing puberty blockers to youth. However, only so long as more research is put into it.
- Hormone blockers are generally used because it's far easier for people to transition if they haven't already been smacked around by puberty and it ends up giving a healthier result.
  https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/24/texas-transgender-kids-transition-related-health-care/
  (I KNOW, right? "Texas Tribune?")
  "Studies have found that transgender youth who take puberty blockers are significantly less likely to experience lifelong suicidal ideation than those who want the care and don’t get it. And studies show psychological trauma is reduced and life satisfaction increases when people who want transition-related hormone therapy get it.
  Major medical associations support transition-related care. They include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, the World Medical Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health."
- this is why i haven't taken my kid to get his supposed 'broken leg' fixed. sorry kiddo but i have thoroughly inspected it and determined that the bone angles are within tolerance
- Do you think it would be important to understand the clinical requirements, outcomes, and medical consensus of the previous policy vs a blanket ban before endorsing a ban? Isn't the point of blockers to slow development so informed consent about transitioning can be made?
- You're not going to get any sympathy here, but for what it's worth I agree with you. Some children may be entirely convinced that they know exactly what they want, and two years later they may find out they were completely wrong. I'm a trans ally, but I think children should require the explicit informed consent of their parents for any and all medical treatments including hormone therapy.
  
  Good thing puberty blockers are completely reversible should the child end up being wrong. But if they are not wrong they are spared living through their body changing further into the opposite of their gender.
  
  As I understand it, the rate of post-hormone regret for these kids is extremely low. Like, single or double digits low.
- You know puberty blockers aren't permanent right? Stop taking them, and then puberty happens. But once you've gone through puberty, there's no undoing that. That's where the harm is, in forcing someone to undergo changes they know they don't want.
  
  Anti-trans people will not be swayed by facts, they want their hated other and they've made their choice.
  The only thing we can do is try and limit their damage
  
  This is only true of GnRH related medications. Use of hormones as well as more effects. Just to be clear.
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6626312/
- I don't know what I want for dinner and that never stopped me from identifying myself.
- I guess ill be the one to bite.
  How do you consider this good news? All scientific literature indicates that prescribing puberty blockers to trans youth has a large benefit to the state of their current and future mental health, while also causing no harm as once they stop taking them, if they dont further transition, their regular puberty takes over with no decrease in how much they mentally and physically develop (dont forget, these are also regularly prescribed to cis kids too)
  
  They’re a troll, I’ve seen their account in other threads. If you look at their account they have all down votes. Like they’re trying to collect as many downvotes as they can.
  
  Please link to all relevant scientific literature. Otherwise I'm going to assume you're just spouting talking points out of your ass because this stuff hasn't been studied as extensively as you claim.
  
  The second part of what you say (puberty takes over as soon as the blockers are stopped) is not, as far as I'm aware, established. There are huge questions over this. First off, if I decide to come off puberty blockers aged 30, will I then go through puberty? If so, how different will it be to a normal puberty? If not, how long do I take puberty blockers for until I've bypassed my puberty? Can we quantify or qualify the potential harms inherent in the treatment? There're too many unknowns and not enough evidence to support this statement you've made. I've seen it made before which is why I looked into it.
  I'm not trans myself, but some of the people I love are/were. I love them and I want them to thrive, which is why I'm concerned about the enthusiasm for a seemingly magic bullet which I think has the potential to do a lot of harm if applied without being properly understood.

200 comments