Transgender Rights

[Ms Harmless]

it really is, yeah

[Bi_3]

Puberty blockers are not a pause button, that lie really needs to stop.

[Ms Harmless]

have you asked any NHS Gender care doctors?

[Ms Harmless]

or are you just gonna rely on Jesse Singal's opinion?

[Ms Harmless]

like I've said before, we have been using puberty blockers for many reasons, for cis and trans people, for a long time; if there are any questions left about how it works, the majority of doctors giving them to patients are not bothered about them because the overall evidence is that they do (and don't do) what they say

shall we talk about how many other medications you are confident do their job -- and the medical system trusts in -- that we still have questions over? maybe the cancer treatment comparison is apt here

[Ms Harmless]

"that lie really needs to stop" he says after reading a known-transphobic journalist's tweet

but, "how dare you be mean to me, I am just asking questions!" he also says

[simple schoolboy]

"that lie really needs to stop" he says after reading a known-transphobic journalist's tweet

but, "how dare you be mean to me, I am just asking questions!" he also says

There really aren't any good studies on this stuff. "Just trust me bro" is not normally the standard we use for medical interventions of this sort.

[Ms Harmless]

also, it's very important that the NHS website changes do *not* include changes to what we already knew about reversible *secondary sex characteristics*, which is the big hoo-hah we're talking about; what is focussed on is questions over long-term psychological impact, and the same is true of countless amounts of psychiatric medications, etc.; a long list of them contain "possible" (unrelated) side effects; the only reason to cause a fuss about these ones is if you've already got an agenda against these meds in particular

Bi_3, have you had a Covid vaccine?

[Ms Harmless]

"that lie really needs to stop" he says after reading a known-transphobic journalist's tweet

but, "how dare you be mean to me, I am just asking questions!" he also says

There really aren't any good studies on this stuff. "Just trust me bro" is not normally the standard we use for medical interventions of this sort.

it's almost like you've never spoken to a gender transition specialist doctor

[Ms Harmless]

I have Hydrocephalus

I'm really glad doctors in 1982 decided to put a VP shunt in my head while we still weren't sure how much or how often they work

[Ms Harmless]

every area of medical care has experimental treatment before that treatment is normalised and established; you either support that movement forward, or you don't

[spike]

It's sobering to see a Verb post on page one that's not even particularly hateful. What happened to that boy

i started calling him on his bullshit about five years ago. he didn't respond well to that.

[Ello Sailor]

Oh wow you did this.

[spike]

how could i know he was so fragile

[Ms Harmless]

they all are

[spike]

toxic males? so true.

[Ms Harmless]

yep

[Bi_3]

"that lie really needs to stop" he says after reading a known-transphobic journalist's tweet

but, "how dare you be mean to me, I am just asking questions!" he also says

There really aren't any good studies on this stuff. "Just trust me bro" is not normally the standard we use for medical interventions of this sort.

Exactly. In the US puberty blockers are not approved to use for GD, so they have not gone through the same multiyear review process that other medicines have to in order to prove they are safe for the use case in question. What Singal is saying, which is the same as the NHS is now saying, is that we don't have enough data to be sure... which is obviously the truth. Most of the studies done are on precocious puberty(PP) as that is what it's approved for here, which is a different use case. In PP the drugs interfere with the development of some amount of secondary sexual characteristics (varying by dosage and by patient) so the brain can catch up to where the body is. For GD it would be different as the brain and body are in sync and the drugs are disrupting the natural state, allowing the brain to get ahead of where the body is developmentally and you cannot 'reverse' that once it's been done. That's why the 'pause button' analogy is bullshit, because everything is still moving forward except some amount of secondary sexual characteristics (varying by dosage and by patient).

[B]

have you asked any NHS Gender care doctors?

The NIH in the US suggests monitoring bone density and cognitive development among youth on puberty blockers and not on puberty blockers, but does not recommend discontinuing their use.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7433770/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5694455/

So, that sounds like an item for informed consent between doctors, parents, and patients. But, OK, fair, there was a sentence in Oliver's 27 minute video that could have included a little more qualification. A real gotcha moment!

[Ms Harmless]

I am constantly monitored by doctors -- at my local surgery and at a London NHS Gender Identity Clinic -- so that the right things happen in my transition, and the wrong things do not; whatever we don't know yet about my transition care is accounted for; the risks are accounted for, and everyone I have dealt with in the field has been transparent about what we don't know, whilst assuring me of their confidence in their suggested course of treatments; if any negative or unwanted effects occur, they adjust or simply stop the treatment