Oops.
Powerful ‘puberty blocker’ drugs given to hundreds of young people who are confused about their gender significantly risks lowering their IQs, a leading scientific expert has warned.
In an alarming study, Sallie Baxendale, professor of clinical neuropsychology at University College London, called for ‘urgent’ research into the impact of the drugs on children’s brain functions.
NHS England stopped routinely prescribing the drugs, which halt bodily changes in puberty, last year after a damning review found that the treatment could interrupt the process of the brain maturing.
But private gender clinics are still giving puberty suppressants to under 16s in the UK – and trans activists insist the drugs are safe.
And if activists don’t know, who does?!!
Comments
14 responses to “How to make yourself dimmer”
Well, the other kind of activists already knew that. Start puberty blockers, take seven years off your life expectancy and eight points off your IQ.
https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/59/3/1023/302037/Differences-in-All-Cause-Mortality-Among#
Dumb and doomed is no way to go through life.
Maybe they should ask the pharmaceutical companies for a second opinion, right?
Yikes! I don’t think I knew that.
My authentic self is a bit dumber and will die sooner.
For those of you who, like me, wanted to read the actual study, Baxendale’s work is in preprint but can be found by searching for the title “The Impact of Suppressing Puberty on Neuropsychological Function”.
Here’s another, more technical commentary on the same data.
Giving something to men that lowers their “inhibitory control” is a bit alarming.
I find it convincing but isn’t a dumber kid more likely to think puberty blockers in the first place? Probably more confounding factors than that, but it’s certainly a possibility.
BKiSA, point taken, but… for better or worse, the pre-print review is mostly NOT looking at studies from children taking “puberty blockers” because of claims of gender dysphoria(largely because none of good quality actually exist); most of the studies included are animal studies, and the human studies included mostly are reports from patients suffering from physiologically-defined conditions (precocious puberty, cancer) that are treatable with GnRH administration… risk-benefit analysis in such cases may still well fall on the side of GnRH administration.
maddog1129, indeed. The combination of a potential reduction in IQ (with all the usual caveats associated with IQ measures) and in inhibitory control – particularly in a population of people who seem to be largely already acting like bullies in the first place – is terrifying.
BKISA, i’d be interested to see if you have any evidence that a “dumber kid” is more likely to go on puberty blockers. It’s my understanding that kids with gender dysphoria are more likely to have autism, often with average to above average IQ, but well below average social/emotional intelligence. The opportunity to transition presents them with an apparently science-based solution that solves their social/emotional problems.
I don’t actually have evidence; it’s merely supposition fueled by my eugenic tendencies. The idea that “transitioning” can produce the desired outcome just seems to betray a naivete that hasn’t actually done the thought experiment justifying why it would work. Like with puberty blockers, why would anyone with a powerful brain get the idea that interfering with that just by taking some pills or whatever wouldn’t have pretty massive side-effects? You need a QAnon level of magical thinking to believe that stuff would work.
Well, evidence shows that even very bright teenagers can have a striking level of naivete in some areas, especially about things that have significant emotional weight (like feeling betrayed by the havoc puberty is wreaking on their bodies). Empirical evidence is that I was not lacking in intelligence, but my teenage brain fell for a fair bit of magical thinking, back in the day (I like to think that I got better in the subsequent decades.)
I think I’ll ring in with Seanna here. There are a number of instances of trans in elite colleges (I don’t know the number, so please don’t ask). Trans activism has also taken hold in these institutions, including among some of the academics. I know it is trendy to suggest that college achievement doesn’t require any particular intelligence and doesn’t add anything particular to your intelligence, but I find it difficult to accept that without a LOT of evidence, because all the evidence I’ve seen suggests there is at least some correlation between educational achievement and high IQ.
There does seem to be a strong correlation between autism and trans, though. Maybe that’s what you’re thinking of?
This question causes me to wonder about the relationship between intelligence and credulity-or-skepticism. Trans ideology is full of examples of otherwise-intelligent [to all appearances] people being startlingly credulous. Also it doesn’t normally take a whole lot of brain power to know that men are not women.