AusGeoff wrote on Sep 30^th, 2022 at 2:30pm:


Your final comment sounds definitive - the study made it clear that it was 'might', 'maybe' and 'could' ... huge difference and this is the trap that the unwary fall into.  There was nothing definitive about it - yet that final comment sounds as if there is.

Retain your impartiality and read the whole thing, Grasshopper.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Sep 30^th, 2022 at 1:55pm:

https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/gender-dysphoria-in-children-risking-harm-from-well-...

"Despite the absence of supportive evidence, the American Pediatric Association recently suggested that aggressive and clearly harmful medical and surgical interventions might be appropriate for many children who express reservations about their biological sex (Szilagyi 2022; Rafferty et al. 2018).

At the same time, other experts on transgender medicine, including some who are themselves transgender, are raising serious doubts about the quality and value, for young people, of “gender affirming care” (Ault 2021). They are clear that, for youth, the unavoidable short-term harms outweigh the theoretical long-term benefits.

“The latest skirmish was set off by comments made by Marci Bowers, MD, president-elect of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and Erica Anderson, PhD, president of the U.S. Professional Association for Transgender Health” (Ault 2021).

Dr. Bowers is a skilled gynecologist, who is herself transgender, and performs gender affirming surgery on adults as well as clitoral restoration surgery for adult woman who have suffered genital mutilation (Clitoris.io Undated). Clearly Dr. Bowers does not have a general aversion to major surgery for determined and consenting adults.

However, Dr. Bowers and transgender psychologist Erica Anderson are distressed and sound an important alarm. They are concerned that children are, on the basis of little or no clinically-proven evidence, being subjected to immediately harmful, complicated, and often irreversible medical and surgical interventions. They note the increasing incidence of, often temporary, rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) where youngsters express an interest in changing from their birth sex, an interest that diminishes or disappears as they get older. Bowers and Anderson emphasize that many people change their minds! And yet at exactly the same time that these alarm bells are being rung, the number of young people now receiving gender affirming care leading to transition is skyrocketing. Figure 1 shows Canadian data and Figure 2 shows data from the UK. Trends are similar in the US ."

"Sex reassignment from male to female or female to male is not a benign medical procedure. Hormones and puberty blockers influence growth and development, and trans people are subject to increased risk of various illnesses. A recent Macdonald-Laurier Institute paper (Pike, Hilton and Howe 2021) contains an excellent discussion of the known short- and long-term harms of medical procedures aimed at gender reassignment.

Unfortunately, these aggressive interventions are not based on scientific studies demonstrating overall long-term benefit, nor studies showing which children are most likely to achieve benefit or harm, nor any studies assessing how many young people suffering from ROGD later change their minds and embrace their birth sex. Missing too is information about the proportion of people of various ages who have had gender reassignment procedures who subsequently regret having had those procedures.

Indeed, it seems that mental health issues, and particularly depression, are worse among trans adults (Kattari et al. 2020) than among the general population. There are allegations and opinion, but not sound evidence, that mental health improves after transition surgery (Ring and Malone 2020). We do not know if these mental health disturbances arise because of how trans people are treated by families, physicians, and communities or whether they indicate abnormal biology.

In the absence of the sort of evidence listed above, how can adults, parents, and children decide what to do in the face of conflicting advice from credentialed advisors? And given the politicization of these issues, not least by so-called “conversion therapy” bans, many medical professionals are reluctant to inform young patients fully of risks, or to suggest counselling, for fear of falling afoul of such legislation. Yet medical professionals and regulators should fully expect that detransitioners, those who regret their transition, will be angry and hold to account a medical establishment that refused to inform them fully at the time of their decision about the risks.

In this regard, the experience of the Tavistock Gender Clinic (formally known as the Gender and Identity Development Service (GIDS)) in the UK is instructive. At one time the flagship gender disorder clinic in the UK, the Tavistock has recently been shut down by regulators after a damning independent report (Sex Matters 2022) for precisely these issues: uncritically taking at face value young people’s gender dysphoria and immediately prescribing hormones, “puberty blockers” and even surgery with little or no effort to understand or communicate the risks to their patients. According to The Independent, “Staff, patients and parents have raised concerns that young people using the service were put on the pathway to transitioning too early and before they had been properly assessed.” Massive class-action lawsuits (Lovett 2022) are now expected to be filed against the clinic for failure to respect their professional duties to their patients. One of the lawyers involved, barrister Thomas Goodhead, is quoted as saying that the case “is going to be one of the largest medical negligence scandals of all time” (Times Radio 2022)."

Just another thing on the common theme I pose ..... which is actually very neutral................... that the 'science' is insufficient at this time to actually make life-changing decisions.

If you read that article, many health professionals are worried about speaking out that simple truth, for the reason of serious personal attack and backlash as we all know so well from here..... but I will continue to speak out...

The current science is inadequate and often fatally flawed.......

How is our pet bonobo Lefty going to take that?

                 

Chew on it until your teeth fall out, Lefty..... gotcha every time...

Feel the fear of the horror fifties creeping up on you yet?   You're totally in the zone ..................... couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.....