U.K. temporarily criminalizes puberty blockers for trans kids
U.K. temporarily criminalizes puberty blockers for trans kids
One pro-trans medical group said the emergency ban will "lead to serious harm for millions of patients and even death."
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Unless someone is against trans people existing, is there any merit to doing this? Why make a person go through puberty twice just because they're "too young" to decide?
Trans people have been chosen as the current boogeyman of the UK for them to expiate for their own failings as a country, and for the consecutive disasters provoked by the Tories. It's a sleight of hand that allows them to distract the public with a fear without basis on reality in order to avoid taking responsibility of their own failures.
Hey, I thought it was the people who come on boats!
Where I live, immigrants are the new boogeymen too. But the Conservatives have a big market in immigrants too, so when "other immigrants, not YOU immigrants" doesn't work, I guess that's what trans people are for! Lol
because they know starmer's labour will continue to go along with it.
Because you cant just block puberty for a few years and expect it to jump start perfectly after that. Theres little to no long term studies on the effects of puberty blockers. Potentially, puberty blockers can cause sterilization and weaken your bones.
Minors cant get tattoo, why let them make this sort of decision?
You. Don't get therapy before getting a tattoo. You do get therapy and medical counceling before starting any sort of treatment like this. Your comparison is ridiculous.
Puberty also has significant consequences. The fact that your body is going to go through it without intervention doesn't change that there are consequences to consider.
Puberty blockers have been used for decades, mostly for non-trans patients. I'm sure the effects are fairly well understood, as far as any medical procedure can be understood.
My dad got a knee replaced not too long ago. He was told about the potential consequences and everything it may involve. He spoke with his doctor about what it'd entail many times. He made the decision to go ahead with it. He ended up regretting it and generally having more issues than it solved.
Does that mean people shouldn't be allowed to get knee replacement surgery? Of course not. You talk it through with your doctors (and parent/guardian in this case) and make an informed medical decision. The government shouldn't be making medical decisions for people, especially for things they don't fully understand themselves. People should be allowed to make their own medical decisions.
Is your dad an adult who can consent?
Do you believe that all medical treatment should be withheld from children, then?
Only elective surgeries that have extreme side effects that simply cant be undone.
First of all, puberty blockers require no surgery.
The benefit of the medical intervention should compare costs and benefits. Even for children we do many medical treatments that can't be undone because the benefits seem to outweigh the possible negatives that come with it. For example, fixing a cleft lip has some pretty large consequences, particularly socially, and can't be undone.
We also allow some things that have essentially no positive and don't have the child's consent, such as circumcision.
Medical decisions should be made by the patient, their doctor, and their parent and/or guardian if that applies. It should not be made by you. You can't weigh the costs and benefits for them since you have no idea on every person's circumstances. If they think the outcome will be better with the treatment then it should be their decision.
Removing choice is not something anyone should be in favor of doing. You would not find it acceptable for other people to tell you you can't do things you'd like to do, so leave others to make their own decisions. Assuming that you know what's best for them is controlling and demeaning. They're far more capable in making that choice for themselves than you are.
I think that’s a pretty reasonable position to hold. Do you feel like puberty blockers fall into that category?
Yes, I do. The side effects include everything puberty does, it affects your height, your bone density, brain development, energy levels, heart problems, the list goes on and on.
They need therapy, and puberty blockers have to be done as puberty starts, and that deadline causes steps to be skipped, things rushed, corners skipped, and once its done, its done. You cant undo it.
Imo, the therapy phase shouldnt stop until they are 18.
I’m not sure where you got your information from about puberty blockers, but you might want to consult a different source. Overwhelmingly the medical evidence points towards great benefits from puberty blockers with few drawbacks. They have been fairly commonly administered for almost 50 years at this point - initially for people with early onset puberty - and are widely recognised as safe. Their effect is reversible, side effects are quite few and minor - stuff like hot flashes, mood swings, usual teen hormonal stuff.
How do you, personally, research the risks and benefits of a course of treatment, and what is your methodology for comparing those to determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks for individual cases?
Citation needed
Because I’m pretty sure puberty blockers do literally none of that.
They need therapy, and puberty blockers have to be done as puberty starts, and that deadline causes steps to be skipped, things rushed, corners skipped, and once its done, its done. You cant undo it.
Hold on. Puberty is the thing that is forcing things to be done in haste. Puberty blockers give people time to figure things out. That's the point of it. It gives time to think. Puberty has significant consequences and side effects. Delaying that the effects are just that it's delayed. It's preventing the effects. Some people go through puberty later than others. Puberty blockers are largely just a mechanism we have to control when that happens. You can't undo going through puberty, but you can largely undo the effects of puberty blockers.
yes, you can? we've seen countless examples of it for years, in cis children. these didn't just pop up into existence.
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Edit: I think I've misread this comment chain, but putting my comment back now
These drugs have been used on cis children for non trans related conditions (such as precocious puberty in young children and some hormone-sensitive cancers in adults) for a long time and their effects are well known and fully reversible.
The use of puberty blockers in transgender youth is supported by twelve major medical associations, including the AMA. The people who take them are always, by established protocol, made aware of their major and side effects in relation to their own goals and self perceptions with regard to gender.
On the basis of the forgoing, trans healthcare is considered life saving by a vast consensus of medical professionals.
Now let's hear your side of this totally good faith discussion you've been talking about.
including the AMA
I agree with the previous poster. Medical evidence from a country with for-profit healthcare should be discounted until proven by non-money-motivated experts
Greed can't be trusted, and these are children we're talking about
All American medical science is inadmissible in your view? Ironically I was responding to someone else that was lamenting how people weren't engaging with the evidence in good faith. But hey, who needs to think critically when you can just twist it into a capitalism bad argument. With bathwater like that, who needs babies?
Yeah, I am all for criticizing capitalism but ffs that's not the problem here. It is not as if the US is the only place that puberty blockers are used. Other industrialized countries with universal healthcare do as well. The issue is transphobia, clear and simple.
The issue is extremely well educated medical professionals disagreeing with extremely well educated medical professionals who are motivated by money
If you think it's simply 100% transphobia, then that's why no professionals are asking your opinion
Tell us more about this expert opinion
Glad that professionals are asking for neither of our opinions, honestly.
Doctors in Spain, France, Netherlands, Poland, Norway and Denmark also prescribe hormone blockers to minors, just to say a few. Is that non-profit enough for you?
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I can't understand why people can't just mind their own business. Let me rise my children according to what science says, not what your feelings say. What parents want is to keep their children safe, and puberty blockers helps these children avoid hardships later in life.
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If they actually cared, they would take the time to understand the actual situation and realize that puberty blockers aren't experimental or dangerous.
Yes, I can. But this law is the opposite of caring about others. You're just able to twist anything and disguise it as empathy "for the children" and couldn't care the least what the children actually want.
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The difference is that a blanket ban, even a temporary one "just in case", is actively hurting children. In the UK, trans teenagers need several years of counseling and doctor visits and jumping through hoops before they can actively start transitioning. These drugs help at least halting puberty, otherwise total transition is much harder or impossible. I don't think these drugs should be easily accessible, but right now it's already so hard to get, that kids are getting them from the dark web in secret!
Sure, there are bad parents, and abusive parents. But you can't justify saving children by hurting other children. I'm not "assuming" anything. Defending this ban is literally hurting children.
You're missing the fact that you could easily replace "science" in their comment with "Facebook", because those are the "scientists" they're referring to
I know exactly why people are apprehensive
dishonest refusal
Being apprehensive about something you don't understand is perfectly acceptable and understandable. Taking away people's choice to make an informed decision for themselves with their doctor because of the apprehension is not acceptable (or it shouldn't be at least).
Every medical procedure has consequences, as does the forgoing of such procedure. The decision should be left for each individual to decide for themselves, not a government making medical decisions for all people while being ignorant of their situation.
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Uh… you realise this article is about the UK, right? Hospitals and doctors are pretty universally part of the National Health Service, it’s not really about money.
I’m also 100% in favour of anarchy though so I don’t know if there’s any point in discussing anything further with you.
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No, they get paid a standard salary regardless, it’s not like in the US where they get kickbacks for certain drugs or some surgeries are profitable or whatever.
Anarchism is a really solid, consistent ideology, based on the fact that power corrupts, and therefore the best way to organise society is by dismantling hierarchies of power, and distributing decision-making across the entire society. It’s essentially the ultimate democracy, where everyone works together and looks after eachother. The only real criticism that can be made of it is that it’s “too utopian”, which is a bit of a self-defeating argument if you ask me!
Anyways, nice to chat to you, take it easy!
As an anarchist, yeah that'd pretty much be anarchy.
We couldn't have people make decisions for themselves I guess! We have to make sure those rich elites in control of the government are there to protect us from our total stupidity. /s
Of course there need to be regulations. The procedure needs to be tested to be safe on humans (which it has, to a higher degree than many other medicines), and the parents/guardians would need to reach a decision with their child and with a licensed medical professional.
Government officials aren't licensed medical professionals. They shouldn't be making that decision. They should lay out the groundwork for licensing and medical testing and leave the actual results and decisions to the professionals and the patients.
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The wealthy elite get their position through violence and exploitation, not by taking advantage of people’s poor decision-making - this reminds me of that “why don’t homeless people just buy a house” kind of attitude.
Anarchists are all about rules and regulations, as long as they’re non-hierarchical - to the extent that one of the major phrases associated with anarchism is “Anarchy is order”, and the well recognised symbol of the A within the O. For example, you could agree with a group of friends to take turns to be the designated driver - any of you can freely and voluntarily decide to get a taxi, but you decide to work together for the benefit of the group. If someone takes advantage of the benefit without taking their turn, you’ll quickly all agree to stop driving that friend. This is a really simplified example of how anarchism works.
I’d encourage you to seek out and read more about it. It’s a very sensible and coherent ideology.
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Predatory loans is a great example - they’re not taken out because people have bad decision making ability but because they’re left with no other choices. If you’re poor and you’re struggling to make ends meet, your credit card is already maxed out because you had to fix your car and you can’t afford groceries what other option do you have other than a short term loan?
Quoting the dictionary isn’t how you learn about things! You know that, you little rascal! If youre interested in the etymology, the term anarchism comes from the greek “an archos”, e.g. without hierarchy. It is possible to have laws without hierarchy.
An absence of state, definitely. Government? Depends on your definition of government but if you take it to mean state then sure. Lawlessness and disorder, definitely not - I’ve been to several anarchist collective groups and they’re some of the most well-structured, organised and managed events going.
Anarchism is not what you believe it to be. The Wikipedia page honestly isn't too bad for it:
Generally anarchists want regulations to protect people from being preyed upon. It doesn't want people telling them how to live their lives. People should have the liberty to choose how to live for themselves, as long as it doesn't negatively impact others. No one should have the power to control another person's life. We need to have regulations that protect people and to keep things ordered, but we don't need anybody ruling over others.
Your average person may feel apprehensive about puberty blockers and hormone treatment because conservative/right wing
newspropaganda has been lying to people and misinforming them for over a decade on this issue. Your average person may not know better because misinformation is rampant.But the people in positions of power, such as Victoria Mary Atkins? It's part of their job to be properly informed, and she is, and she doesn't care. She still had the gall to cite the Dr. Cass review when pushing through this harmful rule that's going to irreparably harm trans children.
Dr. Hilary Cass knows better too. The people in power on the right love that review because it gives an appearance of legitimacy to their cruelty against trans people, and lawmakers and judges know they can use it to push though their anti-trans agendas.
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I mean there's having a discussion and then there's just dishonest refusal to even acknowledge an opposing view.
Lol what does "having a discussion" look like to you? Maybe asking questions like "Why...?", literally presenting an opportunity for someone to answer the question? Because maybe you need to re-read my initial comment.
You can't fathom a reason people might be concerned about children being given non-medicinal drugs that block puberty?
Puberty blockers are being offered in a medical context, generally after extensive work with the patient. These aren't hormones being bought over the dark web and taken (or administered) in secret.
There's also a difference between being "concerned" (which the Doctors ARE...hence why these aren't over-the-counter substances), and wanting it made illegal.