Saw this in the NY Times and could not resist. It shows the depths of the morass the US is now in. I want to remind the reader that not too long ago "Progressives" were against things like FGM and "Conversion therapy". Let us begin:
"Is there a cost?" You'd think such questions would be asked prior to the "pausing". But of course we saw during COVID that such things as extensive research is no longer how "The Science" is done.
"The medical guidance was direct.
Eleven-year-old Emma Basques had identified as a girl since toddlerhood. Now, as she worried about male puberty starting, a Phoenix pediatrician advised: Take a drug to stop it."
In a sane country this would be a clear case of medical malpractice. This 11 year old did not identify as a girl "since toddlerhood". The kid was imitating the adults around him and following that which he found interesting and amusing. It's possible that he was the extremely curious type.
"At 13, Jacy Chavira felt increasingly uncomfortable with her maturing body and was beginning to believe she was a boy. Use the drug, her endocrinologist in Southern California recommended, and puberty would be suspended."
Rather than deal with the discomfort of the pubescent body, she succumbed to peer pressure and the adults including the criminal endocrinologist (that's what I said), incentivized that nonsense. You know what? I really hated the spontaneous erections I would get in school. Particularly when they happened while I was in front of class.
"“‘Puberty blockers really help kids like this,’” the child’s mother recalled the therapist saying. “It was presented as a tourniquet that would stop the hemorrhaging.”"
Puberty, a natural process that leads to biological adulthood is not a "hemorrhage". That there are licensed medical "professionals" with this attitude who are still allowed to practice "medicine" while doctors who correctly warned about these mRNA "vaccines" are harassed and lose their livelihoods tells you all you need to know about this industry.
"During puberty, bone mass typically surges, determining a lifetime of bone health. When adolescents are using blockers, bone density growth flatlines, on average, according to an analysis commissioned by The Times of observational studies examining the effects."
Where the "professionals" just now figure out that puberty involves more than breast formation and the like.
"Many doctors treating trans patients believe they will recover that loss when they go off blockers. But two studies from the analysis that tracked trans patients’ bone strength while using blockers and through the first years of sex hormone treatment found that many do not fully rebound and lag behind their peers."
I will go out on a limb and say that these doctors believed no such thing. They had no clue and saw that they could make a few bucks and gain social credit among their peers for supporting the current thing. A real doctor would have refused to proscribe any of these things without knowing the long term data.
It has been known that for women who have gone through menopause, that the loss of bone density is a direct result of the loss of estrogen. Strange how these professionals suddenly have no clue about this known phenomenon.
"And the New York adolescent had such a significant loss in bone density after more than two years on blockers that the parents halted use of the drugs.
“We went into this because we wanted to help,” the mother said. “Now I worry that we got into a situation with a very powerful drug and don’t understand what the long-term effects will be.”"
Like typical Americans, these people believe in the "magic pill" solutions to their problems. Not surprised in the least bit. Of course the "medical professionals" took advantage of these desperate parents (and charged them or their insurance companies a nice mint) and rather than say "No" they apparently condemned this person to a life of weak bones. Oh yeah, no liability either.
"It didn’t take long for Cherise and Arick Basques to realize that their toddler was different. The child rejected pants, toy trucks and sports in favor of dresses, Barbie dolls and ballet. When Ms. Basques ran into a friend at a restaurant in their Phoenix suburb and introduced her then-4-year-old as her son, the child shouted: “No! I’m your daughter!”"
First thing. I don't care what the kid wants to wear in the house. Don't care what doll teddy bear, whatever they want to play with. Heck if they like ballet, don't care. Not poisoning them for it.
Secondly, I will lay the smack of a lifetime on any child of mine who thinks they can yell at me in private or public. But this accommodating rude behaviour by children is a common theme I see with parents with kids who are "confused".
"The next year, they allowed the child, then 5, to begin using the name Emma, grow longer hair and take other steps to socially transition. I"
Fuck that entirely. Not in my house.
" In 2019, when Emma turned 11, a physician at a local gender clinic advised starting blockers."
Criminal prosecutions for all involved.
"The first two years were promising, with the patient, by then a teen, taking Prozac in addition to the blockers. But at the start of the third year, a bone scan was alarming. During treatment, the teen’s bone density plummeted — as much as 15 percent in some bones — from average levels to the range of osteoporosis, a condition of weakened bones more common in older adults."
Whoops.
"The doctor recommended starting testosterone, explaining that it would help the teen regain bone strength. But the parents had lost faith in the medical counsel."
That testosterone wasn't gonna free was it?
"But it’s increasingly clear that the drugs are associated with deficits in bone development. During the teen years, bone density typically surges by about 8 to 12 percent a year. The analysis commissioned by The Times examined seven studies from the Netherlands, Canada and England involving about 500 transgender teens from 1998 through 2021. Researchers observed that while on blockers, the teens did not gain any bone density, on average — and lost significant ground compared to their peers, according to the analysis by Farid Foroutan, an expert on health research methods at McMaster University in Canada."
"Increasingly clear" that what we knew before pushing this on children, is actually happening to the children.
Oh and whoops.
" In most cases, their bone strength fully recovers after they stop the drugs at about age 11 and resume full puberty, which can last up to five years."
I'm still processing "stop the drugs at about age 11". Just thinking that in the US it is now acceptable to do this to those under age 11 possibly down to 8-9 for those early starters like I was.
"The participants, followed in one study through age 18, and in the other through age 22, saw their bones strengthen, on average, once on hormones. Still, most patients continued to lag behind their peers; trans men neared average levels, but trans women fell far below."
It's almost like there is some kind of biological determinism....
"If any harm resulted from the use of blockers, it likely would not be evident until decades later, with fractures. However, for children who already have weak bones as they start treatment, the dangers could be more immediate. While there is no systematic record-keeping of such cases, some anecdotal evidence is available."
Future civil cases will be lit.
"After more than a year on blockers, a 15-year-old in Texas, who had not had a baseline scan, showed spinal bone density so low that it was below the first percentile for the teen’s age and weight, indicating osteoporosis, according to medical records from earlier this year."
Whoops.
"Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups wrote to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, urging the Justice Department to investigate growing threats of violence against physicians and hospitals that provide transgender medical treatment to adolescents. As more Republicans frame the treatment as child abuse, some doctors have become wary of discussing their work for fear of becoming targets."
Absolutely is child abuse and they should be afraid. They should have their licenses revoked, prosecuted criminally and bankrupted.
