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A new report written by three well-respected medical experts and scholars questions the safety and effectiveness of pressuring gender-confused children to undergo "radical" and "experimental" puberty-blocking hormone therapy even though the treatment and its side-effects haven't yet been adequately researched by the science and medical communities.
The new report, "Growing Pains: Problems With Puberty Suppression in Treating Gender Dysphoria," was published by the quarterly journal "The New Atlantis" on Tuesday.
Parents and grandparents---I strongly encourage you to review this study.
It contains:
What Is Puberty?
Hormones and Puberty
The Origins of Puberty-Suppression Techniques
Advocacy and Guidelines
Blocking Puberty for Gender Dysphoria
Weak Justifications
Claims of “Reversibility”
What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us
It argues that while puberty suppression therapy through hormone intervention is increasingly being recommended for children with gender dysphoria and at younger ages, there is little evidence that shows that puberty suppression is "reversible, safe, or effective for treating gender dysphoria."
"Psychologists do not understand what causes gender dysphoria in children and adolescents, or how to distinguish reliably between children who will only temporarily express feelings of being the opposite sex from children whose gender dysphoria will be more persistent. Until much more is known about gender dysphoria, and until controlled clinical trials of puberty suppression are carried out, this intervention should be considered experimental," the report states. "Regardless of the good intentions of the physicians and parents, to expose young people to such treatments is to endanger them."
The Christian Post says, "The report was authored by Paul Hruz, an associate professor of pediatrics, endocrinology, and diabetes and associate professor of cell biology and physiology at Washington University in St. Louis; Lawrence Mayer, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine scholar in residence and professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University; and Paul McHugh, Johns Hopkins University's distinguished service professor of psychiatry."
The authors criticize a "2016 Guide" that was produced by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians, in partnership with the pro-LGBTQ political advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.
The 2016 Guide says, "To prevent the consequences of going through a puberty that doesn't match a transgender child's identity, healthcare providers may use fully reversible medications that put puberty on hold."
These doctors are calling that notion a "drastic and experimental measure" that could "have negative consequences for neurological development."
The drug most often used on kids---GnRH---isn't even approved by the FDA.
Dr. Hruz warns that many parents who allow their children to go through this kind of treatment therapy may be unaware that this is still "very much experimental."
However, the homosexual activists in collusion with some medical doctors are not presenting the treatment honestly. Hruz says, "They are not even being told they are being experimented on."
He says, "So the normal safeguards that are normally present when experimenting on children are not being provided for them."
This report was written as a follow-up to a report published last year on the same subject, that showed that gender dysphoria in children most often does not persist into adulthood.
I firmly believe that gender confusion in children is often a result of public classroom indoctrination in sync with homosexual activism.
The earlier report written by Doctors McHugh and Mayer have faced a vicious backlash from the LGBTQ community.We wrote about at the time.
The LGBT activists tried to discredit "The New Atlantis" that published the report, promoted a special "gender resolution" issue of National Geographic which featured a so-called "transgender child" on the cover, and attacked Doctor McHugh personally and professionally.
All because the homosexual activists see his work as a threat to their agenda. His record as a scientist, clinician, and leader in the field of psychiatry is unimpeachable, demonstrated by his work and position at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and his membership in the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Hruz, an author on the 2017 "Growing Pains" report, was not an author on Mayer and McHugh's highly read report in 2016.
However, Dr. Hruz says, "There is an element of ideology interfering in scientific debates."
He says further, "It is very evident that there is an element of ideology superimposing itself into science that is present here. It is very clear that the ideology is driving suppression of people that recognize the difficulty that is going on here, at least among academics, that discussion that would normally go on is being muted because of the ideology and how vocal advocates for this particular intervention is preventing people from raising legitimate scientific and medical questions."
It's clear that LGBTQ activists are much more focused on advancing their agenda, including indoctrinating children, then actually helping children.
I'm reminded of the words and wisdom of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy.
After pages of teaching parents and family members when to teach their children, where to teach them and what to teach them, the consequences of failing to do so are written in chapter 28.
"Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand."
Takeaway
Parents and grandparents invest in your children. Teach and live out God's Truth in front of them. Be informed and vigilant in regard to those who seek to destroy them.
Having faithfully done all, commit them to God and trust Him---because at some point there will be no strength in your hand, but His hand is never shortened, nor weakened.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.