There’s a pathway here. Blockers >>> hormones>>>surgery as older teen or very young adult.
For natal males, blocking in tanner stage two and continuing to estrogen is proving to be essentially irreversible- they can have surgery without enough tissue for the surgeon to work with or they can live with a non-functioning, under developed pen…
There’s a pathway here. Blockers >>> hormones>>>surgery as older teen or very young adult.
For natal males, blocking in tanner stage two and continuing to estrogen is proving to be essentially irreversible- they can have surgery without enough tissue for the surgeon to work with or they can live with a non-functioning, under developed penis. Most go on to have surgery and the surgical outcomes aren’t great. It’s such a lie to say that 12 year olds aren’t consenting to anything irreversible. It’s a comfortable lie but it’s a lie nonetheless.
This is an issue that I have lived in a much more personal way than you can probably comprehend- paying for and providing post-operative caregiving for my FTM sibling after his double mastectomy in 2002 to mothering a now desisted son to loving and taking care of several additional trans-identified children.
I used to make similar pro-trans arguments. I used to play on your team or at least an adjacent one.
As a mom of children who aren’t transgender but who got caught up in identifying as such for complex reasons, I had no choice but to reevaluate and deeply question my “good liberal” biases and beliefs. Once I did that, insisting puberty blockers are just “a harmless pause button” and that no irreversible surgeries are done in young people without extensive therapeutic safeguards in place was no longer an option. I’ve spoken to doctors, therapists, endocrinologists, parents, happily trans adults, desisted and detransitioned teens and adults. We are living through a medical malpractice scandal, one that hurts transgender people as much as those who ultimately end up desisting or detransitioning.
What you call “hectoring” I would call “saving my child (who has long expressed a desire to be a father someday) from sterilizing himself” and “reminding my niece that liking girls doesn’t mean she’s a boy- it’s really ok to be a lesbian”.
Many good points here. Thank you also for letting us know your personal experiences.
In particular I appreciate you bringing up the dubious nature of the consent involved in surgeries if the child (and parents) have already been on this path for years and (understandably) feel committed to it.
There’s a pathway here. Blockers >>> hormones>>>surgery as older teen or very young adult.
For natal males, blocking in tanner stage two and continuing to estrogen is proving to be essentially irreversible- they can have surgery without enough tissue for the surgeon to work with or they can live with a non-functioning, under developed penis. Most go on to have surgery and the surgical outcomes aren’t great. It’s such a lie to say that 12 year olds aren’t consenting to anything irreversible. It’s a comfortable lie but it’s a lie nonetheless.
This is an issue that I have lived in a much more personal way than you can probably comprehend- paying for and providing post-operative caregiving for my FTM sibling after his double mastectomy in 2002 to mothering a now desisted son to loving and taking care of several additional trans-identified children.
I used to make similar pro-trans arguments. I used to play on your team or at least an adjacent one.
As a mom of children who aren’t transgender but who got caught up in identifying as such for complex reasons, I had no choice but to reevaluate and deeply question my “good liberal” biases and beliefs. Once I did that, insisting puberty blockers are just “a harmless pause button” and that no irreversible surgeries are done in young people without extensive therapeutic safeguards in place was no longer an option. I’ve spoken to doctors, therapists, endocrinologists, parents, happily trans adults, desisted and detransitioned teens and adults. We are living through a medical malpractice scandal, one that hurts transgender people as much as those who ultimately end up desisting or detransitioning.
What you call “hectoring” I would call “saving my child (who has long expressed a desire to be a father someday) from sterilizing himself” and “reminding my niece that liking girls doesn’t mean she’s a boy- it’s really ok to be a lesbian”.
Many good points here. Thank you also for letting us know your personal experiences.
In particular I appreciate you bringing up the dubious nature of the consent involved in surgeries if the child (and parents) have already been on this path for years and (understandably) feel committed to it.