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Comment by mzvkxlcvd | Hacker News Reader

this will be looked back at in the same way as Lobotomies a few years from now

Not only using puberty blockers but mutilating children in general.

A concern I've always had with gender affirming treatments is that there's a strong belief that it is a medical condition, and not a psychiatric problem. I'm not a doctor or anything like that, but it seems to be very much a psychological issue, not a medical issue. Hormone treatment, surgeries, etc. are like medication to cover up the symptoms, but unless mental health is introduced to treat the psychological side, I don't think persons will find relief.

Society has to reward people not for 'being' but for 'doing'. Two genders, two sexes, zero choices.

You're right it's a psychiatric problem. People simply cannot ask themselves: "Is what I'm doing constructive or destructive?"

I'm not in mind that there isn't some subset of population that would not benefit from these treatments. What I question is how large it actually is and how big is effect of peer pressure, media trendiness and in general being teenager going through puberty have. Or just children being children. In some ways there might even be over emphasis of gender roles with momentary interest of children.

Now hard part is how to solve these issues without invasive actions and how to separate those who could benefit from such.

I will remind the gentle reader that the originator of the lobotomy was awarded a Nobel Prize for this.

From Wikipedia: "The originator of the procedure, Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine of 1949 for the "discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses", although the awarding of the prize has been subject to controversy."

At least the people who've been lobotomized can't complain later that it wasn't a good idea.

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