Review says puberty blocker curb has not led to suicide rise
Review says puberty blocker curb has not led to suicide rise
An independent review said the language used around the issue on social media was dangerous.
"There is no evidence of a large rise in suicides in young patients attending a gender identity clinic in London, an independent review has found."
"Prof Appleby's review concludes "the data do not support the claim".
And he added that the way the issue had been discussed on social media was "insensitive, distressing and dangerous".
"A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said decisions on children's healthcare must follow the evidence at all times."
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I have known plenty of young people who had a phase of self hatred who thought being trans can fix their problem. Unsurprisingly it didn't. Thankfully many of them snapped out of it before they could get their hands on medication/surgery.
My understanding is that puberty blockers just delay things, letting them work that out without making permanent changes in either direction?
I thought this before, but then the Cass review came out saying we actually didn't have enough data to know whether or not they did or didn't make permanent effects ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've said this before and I doubt it will be the last, but this ban is not about child safety. It's about reducing the number of trans kids because they're a political inconvenience to a slice of the establishment. If it was about how unsafe they are, it wouldn't only be for kids experiencing gender dysphoria/incongruence. The ban would extend to intersex adolescents:
However, [Streeting] overlooks the fact that this ban does not include teenage patients with a difference of sex development (DSD), more commonly known as intersex. These individuals are prescribed puberty-blocking medication when they unexpectedly commence a puberty that is at odds with their gender identity. DSD patients are taking the medication for much the same reason as transgender patients – ie the puberty they are undergoing is causing distress, and pressing pause will probably manage that distress and minimise harm while a continuing care plan is developed. If we follow Streeting’s logic, the medication would also be banned for this patient cohort.
Not knowing about permanent effects still seems better than definite permanent effects 🤷♂️ would help learn about them too
Yeah but it would still need to be on a measured scale including placebos, etc.
Randomised Controlled trials like you're asking for are neither ethical nor practical in this situation. Even the Cass report stated that. Patients and doctors will know PDQ whether puberty is happening or not.
You're right that more data is needed. More data is always needed, especially on anything regarding a marginalised group. And, in many of these situations where we know the outcome of puberty is irreversible, makes transitioning afterwards more difficult, with a decent threat of mental health decline without the treatment, waiting around and doing nothing is more harmful than pausing puberty temporarily, where, based on the 30 years worth of research done for puberty blockers to treat precocious puberty, we see the most likely risks are for them to wind up a little shorter than they might have, and maybe fatter.
If you're worried the teenagers receiving this treatment may become sterile, the above linked precocious puberty article found no evidence, but here's an article on a recent study where they used a placebo on rats (because, again, we'll never have a randomised controlled trial done on humans). It adds to the body of data that shows reproductive activity returns to normal very quickly after stopping treatment, for the teens who do discover they're OK with their assigned gender identity. We also shouldn't ignore the good percentage of teens who realise they are trans, and benefit from this in more ways than just buying time.
Then why are different studies saying different things? Another thing is that puberty can be a cure for dysphoria, as I know many were uncomfortable with their body or the idea of puberty as teenagers, but they grew into it.
Can you provide me with the studies saying something different? It's hard to speak to a theoretical.
And many in what way? Personal experience, a mass meta analysis of treatments? There is some data (again; always need more) showing that more than half of the children who express some level of gender nonconformity will eventually settle on identifying with their gender assigned at birth. This aligns with our overall understanding of how children learn who they are: trying on new identity "hats" to find the ones that fit. We also have evidence that even having a single person using a trans youth's chosen name results in a 29% decrease in suicidal ideation, and a 56% decrease in suicidal behavior. For the youth who are cis, it at worst makes no difference, at best communicates that they have support while they figure out who they are. So I would argue that it's the time taken for a youth to explore their gender and figure out what's correct, that actually provides a "cure for dysphoria", rather than puberty itself. In fact, a US survey of nearly 28,000 trans respondents found that for those between kindergarten and 8th grade (5 - 14 years old), those who were out as, or perceived to be trans, 54% were verbally harassed, 24% were physically assaulted, and 13% were sexually assaulted; 17% left school because of maltreatment. So what you're interpreting as youth being cured, is more likely them going back into the closet to avoid being harassed.