Ethical issues arising
Let’s think about autonomy.
In some cultures and contexts children have always experienced some forms of autonomy – like ones where their labor was necessary for example. Farm children – which was most children in most places for most recent history – were expected to do as much of the work as they physically could. The modern change is more in shielding them from work than in newly seeing value in autonomy for them.
But, that aside…children are children. The amount of autonomy it’s safe to give them is limited. Autonomy to decide to trash their own bodies…that’s one that should wait. The “thesis” that children know their own best interests is absurd, and thus reckless.
It truly boggles my mind that the use of puberty blockers for trans children is based on the data from the use of puberty blockers for children with precocious puberty. I have a child on puberty blockers because she started puberty at 6. We waited (probably longer than we should have) because I was concerned about the long term risks. I discussed them extensively with our endocrinologist, and when she continued to progress and the changes in her body were beginning to create social discomfort for her (having to wear a bra in 2nd grade, mood swings harming friendships) and I did not think she could manage menstruation at age 8, we decided to accept the risk, make sure she was on supplements to help avoid bone loss issues, but she is going to go finish a normal female puberty, her body will go on to experience all the hormonal changes the female body needs to experience. How the data on the use of puberty blockers for this purpose can be used to say it is safe to block the puberty the body needs to experience, and then substitute it with a puberty brought on by cross-sex hormones is beyond me.
We don’t know what the consequences of long term use of cross sex hormones on adolescents and young adults are, much less their use when the puberty the body would have experienced never happens. What does being on testosterone long term do to a woman’s body? We know high testosterone levels in women lead to a range of medical problems, from infertility, reproductive cancers, high cholesterol and cardiac issues, etc. If a woman who has been on T is able to get and maintain a pregnancy (women with PCOS have a higher rate of miscarriage from the elevated T levels) what impact does years of T exposure have on her eggs? There is some data showing that daughters of women with PCOS have a higher rate of precocious puberty. This is one gigantic medical experiment that may have physiological consequences beyond this generation.
Indeed. It’s horrifying to see the frivolity and recklessness with which people promote puberty blockers for non-medical reasons. I’m sorry you’ve had that worry with your daughter.