"The purposes of health care in general are to improve comfort, function, and life expectancy. And the purpose of mental health services is to influence feelings, thoughts, and behaviour.

What should people with gender dysphoria[1] consider when thinking about complex gender affirming[2] interventions?

First, gender affirming interventions pose immediate and continuing risk to life expectancy and function.

People who transition take supplemental hormones, estrogen or testosterone, which are not compatible with their biological sex. They are exposed to various risks including increased risks of breast cancer for men who take estrogens to transition to woman, and liver disease for men who transition to female. There is also evidence of temporary or even permanent sterility as a result of taking such hormones (National Health Service 2020).

Men who take estrogen for a male to female transition must also take other drugs, like spironolactone, to block the effect of testosterone. Spironolactone interferes with potassium metabolism and increases the risk of blood pressure and heart rate abnormalities, as well as muscle problems. Some transitioners choose to have their testicles removed to take lower doses of estrogen and avoid testosterone blockers. Not everyone responds to hormone disruptors in the same way. The absence of guiding research means it is not clear what measures clinicians should use to decide on the best dose or strategy for each person."

"Some people believe, as adults, they might be happier if they were not their birth sex. Bruce Jenner, the male Olympic athlete, who became the female actor Caitlyn Jenner, is one example and Chaz Bono, formerly Chastity Bono, transitioned from female to male. Fully informed adults under the care of competent professionals are entitled to make such choices and may feel the benefits outweigh the risks, although here again we lack the medical research and data to inform them properly about the consequences of these choices.

Conclusion

Motivated and consenting adults should have the freedom to choose how to live their lives. If clinicians are prepared to offer drug and surgical treatments for gender transition, patients should be free to have them. The regulators’ and lawyers’ responsibility is to evaluate whether clinicians gave the patients, who subsequently changed their mind, the information they needed to make an informed choice. If regulators agree with this rationale then people should be free to ask for and receive other drugs that they believe will improve their experiences, thoughts, feelings, and behaviour including hormones to modify appearance, and drugs, uppers, and downers, such as amphetamines or valium to alter their mood.

Adults and the parents of young children who want to change birth sex face a quandary. Doctors are free to opine on any topic, and many people blindly accept medical advice and recommendations. Most medical suggestions are based in science. Sometimes when science is insufficient, they are based on art. Advice about gender transition for youngsters is one example of such art too often masquerading as science.

When clinicians, making artful suggestions and constrained by conversion therapy bans not to communicate their complete thoughts, offer different and even contradictory conclusions, patients and parents are forced to choose between their opinions and must recognize that majority opinion does not rule. Historically doctors believed that many unscientific treatments were valuable. George Washington had bloodletting for a sore throat and died of anemia, others had radiation therapy for thyroid disease and died from cancer. Sadly, the list of harmful treatments that were widely accepted is not short.

In the face of evidence that some people change their minds, and the clear immediate harms from transition treatments, parents and doctors would be well-advised to support and respect children who claim they are a different gender from the one they were born with, understanding that that does not simply mean acquiescing uncritically in every demand for immediate transition. Professionals and parents should also be clear that some, but not all, people regret invasive and permanent transition treatments and should be advised that proxies (like parents) cannot make such decisions and that the child should wait until adulthood to consider transition and to get information that is current when they decide to explore transitioning.

Frank wrote on Sep 30^th, 2022 at 9:54pm:


Blame the drogs................

FutureTheLeftWant wrote on Sep 30^th, 2022 at 7:39am:



It is so.
I don't hate them. I hate them pushing their fetish onto young kids.
And no, I wish they'd all fck off tbh.

Just look at how many regret their decisions after the fact.
That's psychological..... An encouraged fetish.
They need help, not encouragement.

issuevoter wrote on Oct 1^st, 2022 at 8:02am:


I don't understand the question?  The actions we're taken are justified because they measurably lead to better life outcomes for those being helped

Lisa Jones wrote on Oct 1^st, 2022 at 7:42am:


It's funny.  He is the dumbest person here, and hte most loathesome.  I am ignoring him and he still replies to me constantly and insists he's somehow exposing or owning me.  HE's a case study in the mental illness of the right wing