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Thank you!

My 2 cents from watching--it's not clear from the earlier cohort what is going to happen to the young people of this new group who do go on hormones, if they are doing it for the wrong reason (if their gender dysphoria is being driven by other issues). Even some of the initial kids who persisted are now recognized as having been autistic or having separation anxiety, both things which therapists are now better understanding can lead a person to seize onto transition as the solution to their distress. And people are learning ways to support this separation anxiety and these autistic traits without transition now. Someone asked about this at the Genspect conference--don't we know more about how to support even the young kids? It seems so. Unfortunately, the wave of enthusiasm for the young people to just medicalize is doing them enormous harm.

For those who have seized upon a concrete solution to a mental health struggle, a developmental struggle, medical transition is not a solution, as the issues still remain, and the drugs and surgeries wreak physical havoc, their bodies will keep fighting the drugs and trying to flush them out of their systems. So maybe they won't all desist, but maybe some will transition and then realize they were being "led" as O'Malley says. Many people say they eventually realize they aren't going to turn into the other sex. It might give them time to grow up and deal with their problems, but the health problems, especially if surgery is involved, are incredibly serious.

Ironically, there is currently a stigma around mental health support--they're given a choice of get to know yourself and deal with reality, which is scary and, given how hard these kids are on themselves, threatening, or take on the role of being trans, being treated as special and being able to duck out of some of the parts of growing up, for now. But they will grow up, anyhow, and then....I just hope our society in general will begin to welcome them to be their authentic selves when it doesn't involve them constantly taking drugs to do so. Not like now. The kids having trouble moving back....we can help with this. The MD's into "genderfluid" should be encouraging kids to be fluid back into "not trans at all" rather than telling them they're transphobic when they realize that might be the case for them, which is what many people are reporting.

I don't understand why these interventions are being offered outside of experimental safeguards. 55 kids....really?

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Yes, and as transition (social & medical) happens at a younger age, the more acute the question of informed consent becomes. Adults may be able to juggle two identities in their heads (self-ID gender & bio sex) but surely young children are vulnerable to the illusion that they are in truth the opposite sex they identify with.

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The rate of Desistance in children diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria is dependent on whom you ask. One side of the equation states ‘never/rare’ the other ‘frequent’.

Not surprisingly both sides of the equation are convinced of they are correct and clearly one of them is not.

The logical fallback in interventional medicine is the age-old adage of ‘do no harm'.

A medical intervention involving children and young people that includes irreversible hormonal and surgical mutilation rings a lot of ‘harm’ bells, all the more so given that there is a distinct possibility that the reason the intervention may well have been transient.

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True, Vincent. In the desistance debate, I think Ken Zucker is the winner.

https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/07/21972/

B

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Thanks Bernard, interesting link which I had not seen, and yes, a winner!

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