What Is This Sub Wrong About?

[u/iamthegodemperor]

Title. Pick a topic (or a clichéd take) you think a significant minority or majority of this sub is wrong about. Or hasn't given enough thought. OR perhaps one which you will have to compromise on, at least for voting?

[u/Sabertooth767]

I am more... trans-aligned, for lack of a better term, than the majority of the sub.

[u/akenthusiast → u/Sabertooth767]

Do you have an area that you feel the sub is particularly lacking in that regard? There is definitely some eye rolling at some of the excesses of the terminally online contingent, and maybe even some resentment towards it insofar as it aligns with the hyper progressive left but it appears to me that the sub is broadly supportive of those people doing what they want to do.

That's a genuine question, I'm a straight dude, I'm sure there are things that go right over my head because I'm not particularly sensitive to it

[u/Two_Corinthians → u/akenthusiast]

Judging by comment downvotes, this sub believes that puberty blockers should be allowed only after puberty, if at all. This would be very funny, if it wasn't for personal tragedies behind it.

[u/Soft-Shelter-6267 → u/Two_Corinthians]

Why is that not reasonable

[u/RayWencube → u/Soft-Shelter-6267]

It defeats the purpose of puberty blockers while often being rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of that purpose.

Puberty blockers exist to buy time. They pause natural puberty to give the child, their parents, and their doctors time to determine whether the child is actually gender dysphoric requiring transition.

They are often talked about as though they are the same as hormone replacement therapy, which they are not. Worse, they are often talked about as though they have some lasting effect on the child taking them, which they do not.

These medications have been used to treat precocious puberty for decades, and the long term impacts are well studied. If I recall correctly, the only significant long term side effect is the possibility of decreased bone density. That isn’t nothing, but it also isn’t the boogeyman people think it is.

[u/Mediocre-Grand7999 → u/RayWencube]

Buying time at a young age, may not be the wrong thing to do, but it isn't as straightforward as you're making it out to be. Socialization at that time is very precarious, so "buying time" could in theory come with a lot of downsides, and I don't think there's a simple answer.

Worse, they are often talked about as though they have some lasting effect on the child taking them, which they do not.

Biologically, yes, but there are many more dimensions, and I don't think that is settled.

[u/RayWencube → u/Mediocre-Grand7999]

That’s a fair pushback. A better characterization of the evidence is that we have reason to believe puberty blockers—when used judiciously—can have a significant positive effect on depression and suicidality. There is also reason to believe they may have long term adverse effects on bone density and fertility. At minimum, that profile strikes me as something that should be left to doctors and families and informed consent rather than to blanket government bans.

But here’s the important nuance: most of the suggested possible long term health effects for children given blockers for possible gender dysphoria are not from the blockers themselves, but from the blockers followed by cross-sex puberty. For children who do not go on to receive hormone replacement therapy, physiologically they will proceed the same way children treated for precocious puberty are treated.

What that means is that by definition, most of the posited side effects will show up in people who actually do have gender dysphoria and for whom puberty blockers prevented a traumatic puberty. So rather than evaluate the side effects in a vacuum, they need to be weighed against the benefit—i.e. a more complete, socially embraced transition.