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Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England says
(www.thepinknews.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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I'm not particularly well educated on the subject but according to the BBC:
So why such a big fuss?
Blocks any future access to trans kids
Can puberty blocking be reversed at a later date?
Or can blocked puberty be reverted later?
I could agree with a ban whole heatedly if blocking can't be reversed and blocked cannot be reverted, but I would likely to oppose a ban it if blocking can be reversed and blocked could be reverted.
Gets a little fuzzy if it's one or the other though.
Wouldn't want someone to miss their only chance to block puberty, but also wouldn't want someone to make a permanent choice at 13-14 which can't be reversed if they want to later on.
puberty blockers are used explicitly to delay having to go through puberty. they are used for kids who have precocious puberty (puberty that starts too early), as well as for trans kids. there are some marginal risks associated with them, you might grow a bit shorter, or just generally develop differently that you might have if you had allowed puberty to progress on time, but there aren't specific health challenges people who use them face. the reason you take them is to explicitly prevent somebody from going through irreversible changes they might not like before they can make an informed decision, or before it is healthy for those changes to occur.
interestingly, most of the poor health outcomes of precocious puberty are psychological and social, not physical, which is, i think, an interesting parallel to the trans experience.
You just stop taking them, and your body will start going through puberty. Like the other response said, they're used for cis children as well when they start too early for their body to be able to handle. As with any medicine there can be side effects.
You can't get any trans care that isn't reversible until you're an adult who can legally consent to it. Puberty blockers are reversible, you just stop taking them and go through puberty. This change is completely anti-scientific and pro-bigotry. It's indefensible.
When you stop taking them you go through puberty like normal. The idea is to protect trans kids from the irreversible effects of going through the wrong puberty, but not cause any irreversible effects if they're one of the <1% that later turns out to not be trans.
When you stop taking them puberty continues as normal.
We've been using them for a long time on people who start puberty too early. And know they are effective and safe.