Endochrine Society

[Tomcat]

This weeks New Scientist mag has some focus on the use of Pre Puberty blockers that are now being pushed as a solution in the west to allow youngsters more time to make their minds up whether they want to undergo SRS

Puberty in Europe is coming earlier ..can a 9 year old decide at that age what they really want. The Endochrine Society are pushing for the new drugs to be allowed in all EU states that postpone puberty for a few years.... there are pros and cons of course!

Very interesting editorial and two pages devoted to this debate...Im rushed of myfeet now and ill try to find a link later

[Naang Faa]

Tricky one this, obviously there are huge benefits for a "genuine" TS
It's a total nightmare trying to undo puberty's nasty work (if ya that way minded)
If i had that chance when i was young (and i was offered transition at 17) I'd say no,
It's a last resort for me..
But i can only speak for myself...
x

[sev7en]

I think this is a great idea. More pills to the lbs!!!

[Naang Faa]

Have you tried prozac?
x

[sev7en]

Why? I thought this was about lbs and their struggle to become women?

[Dravina]

Tomcat
a most interesting topic. hope you can post more. please see my post about BBC Radio2, Jeremy Vine Show, interview with the mother of a young transsexual (currently 15) about "puberty blockers" on Thur 11 December.
https://theladyboyforums.com/cgi-bin....t=21138

i posted it in "News" but it was moved to the "Fish Box". maybe we could ask Stogie to combine the topics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00fvgcb still works direct. item begins about 1hr 10 min into 2 hour show. no need to download, it should stream. think you have until Wed this week to hear it or download it.
ciao

[Tomcat]

http://www.newscientist.com/article....er.html

Links here for the Editorial and the article

[Dravina]

Tomcat
thanks very much for posting the links. interesting and i think we will be hearing a lot more about this in the next few years.
a lot of what is in your links is in the BBC2 radio interview (see above) but it is worth listening to hear the mother talk about the problems she and her daughter (Nikki) faced and how they are working to overcome them.
there were emails and phone calls (both pro and con) and Jeremy Vine handled it all fairly well. The mother came over as intelligent and determined; a good combination to help her TS child.

[Guest]

OK ... I can never figure out the fr**gn forum guidelines for posting, but I do come across articles that I think would be of interest to forum readers, and will try to see if they stay posted ... what the h#$%l ... here goes (from the New Scientist ...)

Puberty blockers recommended for transsexual teens

10 December 2008 by Linda Geddes


TRANSSEXUAL children as young as 12 should be given drugs to postpone puberty and make it easier for them to change sex at the age of 16 if they still want to. That's the suggestion of controversial draft guidelines, the first of their kind, issued last week by the international Endocrine Society.

The guidelines state that transsexual children and young teens who have begun early puberty should be given puberty-blockers to avoid inevitable changes to their bodies, which they perceive as out of line with their true gender. In the worst cases, these changes can drive children to self-harm or even suicide.

The idea is to buy thinking time for young people so they can decide if they want to begin a sex change using hormones when they are older. Puberty-blockers would also make life easier when transsexuals become adults. Male-to-female transsexuals, for example, will not have the deep voice, masculine bone structure and body hair associated with adult men. However, surgery should be avoided until the age of 18, the guidelines state.

Nonetheless, the guidelines are likely to provoke heated debate. What if transsexual teenagers change their minds when they get older? According to previous studies, transsexualism persists into adulthood in only 20 per cent of boys who show signs of distress in childhood, for example. And although the effects of puberty-blockers are not permanent - natural puberty should resume if the drugs are stopped - few trials have explored the long-term effects of delaying puberty in this age group.

To reduce the chance of giving drugs to a child who later changes their mind, the guidelines state that treatment should not start before the first stages of puberty have begun - when female breasts have begun to bud, and boys have experienced a slight enlargement of the penis and scrotum. This is because the emotional reaction to these changes can help predict whether someone will persist in their wish for a sex change.

The recommendations are largely based on the experience of a clinic in the Netherlands which has so far prescribed puberty-blockers to more than 70 under-16s. The youngest was 11, and the majority are 12 or over. "Until now we don't have any patient who has regretted their decision on the treatment," says Henriette Delemarre-van de Waal of Leiden University Medical Center, who helped to treat them.

A thorough mental and emotional assessment of the child is essential, so that puberty-blockers are only given in extreme cases, she says, a sentiment echoed by the guidelines.

Many countries, including the UK, refuse to allow medical intervention for under 16s - by which time puberty is usually in full swing. However, clinics in Canada, Australia, Germany and elsewhere, plus a handful in the US have begun to offer the treatment.

Those supporting their actions say puberty-blockers can be hugely beneficial. Take Sarah in London whose daughter George started to question her male body from age 4, and found the changes that started taking place aged 12 intolerable. She began to self-harm, and even threatened to cut her penis off several times. "It was awful," says Sarah. "She was devastated and disgusted that things were happening to her body that she couldn't understand."

The Dutch team assessed her, and said that if she lived in the Netherlands they would prescribe puberty-blockers - in fact, George eventually travelled to the US to get the drugs when she was 13.

George's feelings are typical of those experienced by transsexuals when puberty begins. "They self-harm, they develop an enormous aversion against their bodies, they isolate themselves and their school performance suffers," says Delemarre-van de Waal.

The permanent changes that occur during puberty can also cause lifelong torment (see "Case study"). "It is distressing as an adult that these changes at puberty stand in the way of your appearing as a man or woman," says Richard Green of Imperial College London, who runs a clinic for adult transsexuals.

But doctors opposed to early treatment say that young people may not fully understand the full consequences of their actions. For example, blocking puberty in boys who later go on to have hormone treatment and surgery that turns them into a woman means that they will never produce mature sperm. In contrast, boys who don't change their gender until after 16 could bank mature sperm before undergoing a sex change, allowing them to "father" children should they decide they want to do this.

Russell Viner of the Institute of Child Health in London cites the case of a transsexual man who had both surgery and hormones to become a man, but still wanted to become pregnant. "That may not have been possible if they'd had early intervention," he says. "When is it reasonable to let a young person remove major life choices?"

Marvin Belzer of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, who has treated several 12 and 13-year-olds with puberty-blockers, agrees that there are some difficulties, but says the benefits need to be weighed against the risks. "Some day there's going to be a kid we've treated who comes back and says 'It was wrong - I wish I hadn't done it'," he says. But he emphasises that this isn't necessarily a reason not to give puberty-blockers early on. "The question is can we go back and say, 'Yes, but you and your family gave informed consent, and we knew that was one of the risks, but that risk was small'?"

Peggy Cohen-Kettenis of the Free University of Amsterdam Medical Center, who helped write the new guidelines, agrees: "People are always afraid that it will be harmful for the children, but what they never take into account is that it is also harmful to not give them this treatment."

People worry that the drugs will harm children, but what they never take into account is that it is harmful not to treat them
Transgender support groups welcome the guidelines. "It is an excellent piece of work," says Bernard Reed, a trustee of the Gender Identity Research and Education Society in Ashtead, UK. He hopes the guidelines will encourage UK doctors to consider the option of early treatment.

In the US, Belzer also hopes the guidelines - which offer advice on treating adult transsexuals as well - may encourage insurance companies to cover more of the medical costs of treating gender identity disorder. Puberty-blockers cost around $800 a month.

George, now 15, is still taking puberty-blockers and would like to begin sex reassignment when she turns 16. Sarah knows George will still have difficulties, but she says they would be "increased by 600 per cent" if she'd gone through male puberty: "She stated categorically that 'I would rather die than be a man.'"

Case study: PUberty is hard to undo
The first memory Celia MacCleod has of being transsexual is a school matron telling her at age 8 that she was too pretty to be a boy. "I remember the surprise I felt that she knew," she says.

It took a further 52 years for MacCleod (left) to act upon her convictions. Shortly after her 60th birthday, she announced that she was planning to undergo the surgery that would make her look more like the woman she knew herself to be.

MacCleod's forehead, nose, jaw, and chin were re-contoured, and her upper lip was shortened, so that when she smiles you see her top teeth rather than her bottom teeth - a typical female characteristic. Her Adam's apple was also reduced, and she had laser treatment to remove body hair on her arms, legs, underarms and abdomen.

Now aged 63, she is still having electrolysis once a week to remove facial hair. "It's painful and it's tedious but we're nearly there," she says.

But some characteristics are more difficult to reverse. "You can never really undo the vocal changes that happen during puberty," says MacCleod. While she has had an additional operation to help raise the pitch of her voice, she still has "some awful telephone encounters".

Many of these problems would have been avoided, had MacCleod been given puberty-blockers during early adolescence to prevent her developing the characteristics of an adult male.

As a result, she welcomes international guidelines that recommend giving such drugs to young teenagers with strong transsexual feelings (see main story). "I think it will make it easier for people to express themselves and ask for help," she says. "The idea of being able to have that breathing space of putting puberty on hold and knowing that you're not getting these irreversible changes, I think that's breathtaking."

If MacCleod had felt comfortable expressing her conviction about her true gender at a younger age, she says it would have been valuable: "I would have emerged as quite a pretty young lady with a lot of confidence."

[rxpharm]

above post was moved and merged with existing topic in Academia

[Tomcat]

Just Delete his post RX... its just replicating the link i put up. The chump hasnt even botherd to read it

[rxpharm]

TC, I think it's better to leave it - eventually the links will disappear, so having the quote is good too, so the information is here.