I admit I know virtually nothing about this topic. But it is worthy of investigating.
Readers have shared their thoughts since Frank Report published, Is Transgenderism a Vicious Cult Targeting Children? – A Mother’s Story.
A documentary, referred by a reader, was, I admit, shocking to me. To show you how little I know about the topic, I did not even know that children, who are not old enough to vote, who cannot legally be bound by a contract, who cannot legally have sex, because they are deemed not to have minds developed enough to consent to it, who cannot legally drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, can decide to change their gender and be given puberty blockers.
The documentary, a Swedish documentary called,Uppdrag granskningy investigates the side effects of giving children puberty blockers.
It was described as follows:
When just 11 years old, Leo began to be treated with puberty blockers, which continued for four years at Karolinska University Hospital.
Leo ended up with osteoporosis (significantly below normal bone density interval), fractures in the back, constant pain and a depressed mental state.
The documentary revealed there were an additional 12 cases in Stockholm where children had serious side effects (bone fractures, deep regret from voice changes, injuries, deteriorating mental health and significant weight gains) from puberty blockers.
Leo’s parents were not informed of the risks of the hormone blockers by the physicians and a doctor who warned parents about side effects was reported to the hospital management and silenced.
The psychiatric staff initially blamed Leo’s problems on the hormone team. The head of the hormone department claimed, in an interview, to never have seen the reports from the psychiatric team. An internal investigation seems to have started after the documentary commenced.
Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital reportedly stopped this treatment for children. Other hospitals reportedly are still providing puberty blockers to children and claim the treatments’ side effects are not concerning.
In the documentary, there is an interview of two transwomen who are perhaps in their 50s, who say that transphobic people are using “think of the children” to deprive trans people of care. The two transwomen spoke at a medical conference and told doctors about how they needed to shift the focus from potential harm to children to fighting transphobia.
The documentary includes Leo and his mother crying, and concludes with a claim that nobody knows how many children have or will develop serious side effects from puberty blockers.
A Swedish Mumsnetter posted about the documentary
Some of the comments include;
Whatwouldscullydo:
The sooner its realized that the real transphobia is thinking that trans people and children are entitled to substandard care compared to everyone else. You can’t simultaneously claim something is the right course of treatment, [puberty blockers] then shut down everything that lists side effects or problems.
Even calpol has side effects. Nothing is without side effects. Even things that are meant to be good for us can also harm/kill us.
There is no medical treatment on earth that free of any negative consequences. We acknowledge them we should acknowledge this.
Nothing is going to get better if we can’t look at it.
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potniatheron:
When Lupron was used only for precocious puberty in kids (so very rarely) the guidance was never to use it longer than 6 months continuously. Long term continuous use is known to cause the following side effects (not an exhaustive list):
Bones and connective tissue not fusing properly
Osteoporosis
Obesity
Cognitive developmental delay
Chronic pain / migraine
Chronic inflammation
Speech / cognitive processing issues
Puberty blockers is a misnomer, it would be better to call them growth stunters.
After this, so-called trans children are then flooded with dangerous levels of opposite sex hormones which their bodies are not able to manage or tolerate which puts them at greater risk of stroke, cancer, diabetes and cardio-pulmonary problems.
We should NOT be doing this to children.
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ArabellaScott:
I am thinking today of the 17 year old girls sent from Scotland to England for double mastectomies to treat what is emphatically not a mental illness.
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MarshmallowSwede:
There are many many more children affected by this. This does not even scratch the surface of this scandal. I expect that more and more will come out and many will lose their job and some perhaps be prosecuted….
Many people think Swedes are so open minded that we just go along with anything, but most people in Sweden don’t agree with this. It’s not that we are transphobic, but we understand science and biology. We will leave you to it if you’re not harming anyone, but as you can see due to the rabid TRA and illogical self ID laws we now have children who are basically suffering from sterilization and long term health conditions.
***
While a debate is on as to whether or not this treatment might have harmful side effects, or whether to merely discuss it might hurt adult trans people’s care, I think the debate should be truly focused on whether children should be allowed to make a decision that will effect their entire lives, when science demonstrates that they do not have the brain development to make decisions on such less permanent decisions such as drugs, voting or even to have sex.
Taking puberty blocking drugs that might make one shorter, and physically weaker, cannot be in the domain of children to decide. I doubt also that parents should be entrusted with this decision.
I doubt an 11 year old can legally get a tattoo and yet a child can choose to change their gender. Something is wrong here. And usually when something is this wrong, there are moneyed interests seeking to silence the obvious.
However, I am sure there is another point of view, and I am willing to hear it. I am not terribly interested in comparing adult trans care with permitting children to make a decision to change their gender.
The argument that we must not let children decide to change their gender and get medical treatment to do it should not be conflated with not wanting the best care and treatment of adults, whether they have changed their gender or not.
This is about consent and the age of consent for changing one’s gender. The age of consent in America is between 16-18 and no parent can waive that consent for their child. Why then are children under the age of consent to have sex be permitted to change their sex, with or without parental consent?
I’d be very interested in the answer.
