blocking puberty has some crazy side effects.

I’m a provider at a children’s hospital. I specialize in orthopedics and rehabilitation, so I mostly deal with the musculoskeletal system. I have colleagues who would be able to provide a much better and more in depth explanation, but I will do my best.

Even in orthopedics “hormone blockers” are used fairly frequently. For example the same drugs that people use to transition are utilized to moderate the epiphyseal fusion of growth plates. Puberty is also frequently delayed to moderate the hormone levels of juvenile cancer patients. Or even more increasingly common, to halt the symptoms of precocious puberty in young women.

The vast majority of juveniles prescribed hormones to delay puberty are for non gender affirming care like cancer. The problem with moderating what medical providers can and can’t treat is that you are assuming you know more about medicine than the a person who went to medical school.

You may be trying to protect kids, but what ends up happening is an interference of medical care, and usually not the type you intended. If hormone drugs become more monitored, providers may be hesitant, or have a more difficult brine prescribing it.

The dangers of delaying puberty are very small, when you stop the prescription puberty begins again. Usually the only side effect is excessive growth due to a delay if epiphyseal fusion. In regards to gender affirming care, I will remind people that their providers are looking at total outcomes. Meaning they are factoring in things like the higher potentiality of self harm and suicide.

Precocious puberty has been a thing forever and the first medications for delaying it by regulating hormones have been around since the 1980s. I think that should be the jumping off point for research. However afaik the same sorts of drugs are also commonly used to treat cancer in adults.

Here is an article about their use in treating trans people with links to various studies https://transfemscience.org/articles/puberty-blockers/

How long has this medical technology been in use and where can I find studies about it?

Decades. It was there when I was a kid, so like 20 years ago. And it wasn’t new medical technology at the time.

I have to imagine that blocking puberty has some crazy side effects.

Sort of the joke. Puberty is what has the crazy side effects.

It reduces bone density. Not to unhealthy levels in teens, but there are concerns the lower baseline will increase osteoporosis risk when the patients get to old age.

They can also only be used for a couple of years. Some non-binary people want to be on them permanently, but doctors won’t prescribe that. Some kids want more time to decide, and unfortunately there isn’t anything safe to use through the full teenage years.

It has very few side effects and is completely reversible.

The side effects and risks are worth it when you only get one shot at puberty. If you don’t transition as a pre-pubescent teenager, you will never “pass” as well, especially as a transwoman.

A really good example of how successful you can be if you’re early is Corey Maison. There are cases of transition regret of course, but they’re still a very small percentage of the total, and that percentage is reduced by puberty blockers giving young people more time to figure out themselves and their own bodies, and to make the choice that’s right for them.

There’s some studies that found that bone density could be affected, but considering the suicide rate of trans people I’m going to say that’s a tiny sacrifice for the assurance that you can have the body your brain wants to be in.

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