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Comment by throwaway290 | Hacker News Reader

Ehm... Sorry to break it to you, but people who think they were born the wrong sex are increasingly treated with hormones before the onset of puberty (with puberty-delaying treatments it's kind of the point). Not arguing whether it's good or bad, but by definition they are children at that point in time.

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Puberty blockers are hormone agonists. Not hormones.

Ah, well that it sure does make it better.

Hormones in this context means sex hormones. Delaying puberty is more conservative than inducing puberty. It isn't better to you?

You can take them at the onset of puberty, at which point you are an adolescent by definition, which is that the GP said.

I'm not saying what you can do or not, I just see evidence (a quick google away) that people are given meds to delay puberty, meaning before its start (= onset), meaning they are not yet adolescents by definition.

Edit to everyone pointing out a technicality: yes, puberty blockers != hormone replacement therapy. However, puberty blockers ⊆ hormone replacement therapy.

"Delaying" Not really the right word to use IMO, as the body wont go through proper puberty after stopping the blockers.

No. Puberty blockers have been prescribed for early onset puberty for over 30 years. Puberty proceeds the same basically unless they take cross sex hormones.

Thars a very different usage than the one I am talking about. I am talking about using it on transgemder individuals to block normal puberty, until after it wouldve been over normally.

It's rare for someone taking puberty blockers to be undecided still when puberty would be over.

How old is too old? What would be not proper? Where did you get this information?

Would starting hormonal replacement therapy (by way of puberty blockers) on its own already influence one's decision on what their preferred sex should be?

That is, assuming our consciousness is influenced by chemistry in our bodies.

Puberty blockers don't change gender identity in early onset puberty. Even removing sex organs doesn't change gender identity. David Reimer was castrated very young and raised as a girl. It didn't work. Similar treatments have been forced on intersex children.

Some people say so many gender dysphoria patients taking puberty blockers choosing to transition proves puberty blockers make them want to transition. Maybe it proves diagnostic criteria, professional advice, social factors, or other things keep people who wouldn't transition off puberty blockers.

> Some people say so many gender dysphoria patients taking puberty blockers choosing to transition proves puberty blockers make them want to transition

These people do not address that:

- People with gender dysphoria are disproportionately likely (though somewhat less than those who do take puberty blockers) to choose to transition without having taken puberty blockers, too, and

- People with gender dysphoria who take puberty blockers have a reduced incidence of suicidality.

The best explanation is that:

(1) Gender dysphoria, not puberty blockers, predicts future likelihood of choosing transition, and

(2) Within the group with dysphoria, future likelihood of choosing transition is also correlated with risk of suicidality without puberty blockers, such that withholding puberty blockers reduces the future transition rate by disproportionately killing those most likely to transition later.

Fair enough. I still don't rule out the rise in xenoestrogens and such as playing a role, but I'm aware of reduced suicidality and that's obviously a good thing.

> People with gender dysphoria are disproportionately likely [to transition]

Which age does that typically happen?

> Where did you get this information?

About people taking puberty blockers to block normal puberty as part of hormone replacement therapy? The information is readily available, are you joking?

The other uses of these meds, ones that you are suggesting, is not what this discussion is about at all. You are being willfully ignorant of the context.

About how old is too old. And what would be not proper. You willfully ignored the context. And cross sex hormones block natural puberty on their own.

This discussion is not about trans people? It's rare for someone taking puberty blockers for gender dysphoria to be undecided still when puberty would be over. They decide earlier. Deciding to transition means blocking natural puberty forever. Deciding not to transition means no reason to keep taking puberty blockers.

> Edit to everyone pointing out a technicality: yes, puberty blockers != hormone replacement therapy. However, puberty blockers ⊆ hormone replacement therapy.

Not commonly. And the difference between delaying puberty and inducing puberty is more than a technicality.

Puberty blockers != Hormone replacement therapy

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