I happened to overhear a conversation where a person who favored universal, unlimited access to what he called "gender affirming healthcare" was pitching the idea to a skeptic.
Two of the lynch-pins of his arguments were that "there are no disadvantages to puberty-blocking drugs" and "trans-reversals are extremely rare and most transgenders are very happy".
Puberty-blockers
The person who favored GAH access pitched puberty-blockers claimed that they were only used to buy the unsure youth time-to-decide. Puberty is a one-way street and once started creates a cascade of biological changes.
The person pitching GAH claimed that those changes necessitated lots of expensive and dangerous surgeries to undo the skeletal changes and length of vocal cords and so on. By delaying puberty, the "correct" hormones could be administered to result in the desired post-puberty body.
Furthermore, the person pitching GAH claimed that there are absolutely no negative side-effects to puberty-blockers.
It is necessary to exercise critical reading skills when reviewing the academic literature regarding puberty blockers because the researchers appear to be motivated by a desire to promote these kinds of treatments.
***As a side note: I was left with the impression that some of these "academic articles" were marketing brochures shilling for the medical industry that profits from creating transgenders out of angst-y young teens. Every 13 year-old they "turn" becomes a fifty year stream of revenue***
A quick skim of the internet suggests that it is now known that puberty-blockers vastly reduce fertility in males. That fact undermines the contention that "the only thing that they do is that they buy time for confused youths to make up their mind". That isn't they only thing they do. They also leave the male sterile.
The researchers also bury things in the body of the text, things like "It is much to soon to evaluate long-term effects like increased cancer risk". Cancer, that is a bad thing...right?
The third point is the most difficult to quantify: Puberty is a time of social growth as well as a time of physical changes. One of the things that makes the terror of the physical changes and the challenges of interacting with girls (or boys if you are a girl) is that everybody else got thrown into the deep-end of the pool at the same time. We are all in this together.
Puberty-blockers delay puberty. The pre-adolescent who takes puberty-blockers is left sitting on the bench while everybody else boards the bus and the bus pulls out of the station. They lose the protective effects of running with the herd.
All trans are happy-happy-happy
The person pitching GAH said he knew that people who chose GAH were happier because he followed this one influencer on Instagram and she is the happiest person he knows. Honest. He said that.
The data suggests otherwise.
Suicide rates
According to this report, the suicide rate for transgenders is 18.2 per 100k while the base-rate for the US population is 1.4 per 100k*. The source for this statistic does not identify this as age-adjusted or crude death-rate so that limits its usefulness. The same report claims that the lifetime suicide-attempt rate for transgenders exceeds 40 percent versus a lifetime attempt rate of 1.6 for the general population.
I did a cross-check on the report's numbers and there are issues with them. According to the CDC the general population's death-rate due to suicide for 2023 and 2024 was 14/100k, not 1.4/100k. That kind of mismatch makes all of the data they report suspect.
Substance abuse
Substance abuse is another marker of unhappiness. According to WebMD, transgenders are about three times more likely than the general population to have a substance abuse issue.
Comorbidities
According to this paper, transgender people are four times more likely to have other mental health issues (primarily mood and anxiety disorders) than the general population.
The mainstream media has reported on this issue but always link the issue to "lack of care availability" and "not be accepted by society".
It is telling that the "standard of care" for transgenders includes a life-time of mental health counseling.
They are a liar, lying, telling lies.
ReplyDeleteThat's not dogma, its an observation that follows a pattern. Leftists tend to believe things that just aren't true. Puberty blockers do no harm and most trannies are happy are both patently false, but swallow them they did, and now they've built a whole ideology around it. Thats what the left does.
Profitable propaganda. Lies told to get decades of profit out of it.
ReplyDeleteA lifetime of "services" to keep this medical malpractice horror story going.
The % of mass shooting that has been "trans" is appalling. SO FEW of them SO Large a % of the "I hate churches, schools and so on" mass shooters appalling.
A crime against humanity, a sin against God.
At one time Big Tobacco got Doctors to advertise it's "health benefits" as "good for the lungs, etc.".
So sadly, profit and greed in the product known as healthcare has overtaken the honor of "First do no harm".
In my experience, Liberals have very bad confirmation bias: they assume what they see around them and the examples they know are representative of everybody.
ReplyDeleteA classic example is an old one from a journalist "how could Nixon win? I don't know anybody who voted for him".
Unfortunately, many with mental illness have been sold a bill of goods by those who want to use or profit from their difficulties.
Jonathan
The problem with transgender statistics is the 100 k denominator. No one actually knows how many transgender persons exist in America due to HIPAA, and the number is further muddled by individuals being at different stages of transition.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, most of this is just the current manifestation of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. In almost every case I've seen, one or both of the parents is an attention seeking narcissist. Look at the rate of transgender children of Hollywood celebrities and it starts to make sense. When it was fashionable to adopt kids from Africa, Charlize Theron adopted a couple. And, wouldn't you know it, the kids turned out to be transgender! Boy, it's really lucky they got adopted by a pro-transgender Hollywood celebrity rather than staying in Africa. What are the odds?
ReplyDelete