There are other vital bits of information about the treatment of gender dysphoria that you may not be given and that may not appear in promotional literature.
Do you know that …
There are serious side effects of “transitioning” (fast becoming the preferred means of treatment for gender dysphoria in the Western world)
This is true of each phase of this treatment plan.
Phase 1: Social transitioning
When parents and other adults affirm a child’s desire to dress and act like the opposite sex the child’s normal identity development is unlikely to take place.
Phase 2: Administration of puberty blockers
- Blocking puberty derails the natural identity developmental process. During puberty virtually every part of the body undergoes significant development in sex-specific ways, and going through puberty seems to help children accept their bodies. In 80-95% of pre-pubertal children the problem is resolved by late adolescence after they naturally pass through puberty. In virtually none of the children treated with puberty blockers is the problem resolved.
- Puberty blockers slow the rate of growth, arrest bone growth, and decrease bone density.
- Puberty blockers prevent full organization and maturation of the adolescent brain.
- Puberty blockers inhibit fertility.
Phase 3: Cross-sex hormone therapy
- There are dangerous health risks associated with cross-sex hormone therapy (estrogen for boys and testosterone for girls): increased risk of cardiovascular disease, weight gain, elevated blood pressure, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, insulin resistance, and many other conditions.
- Your child will be permanently sterile, never able to have his or her own biological child.
Phase 4: Sex reassignment surgery
It is not possible to surgically alter a girl to make her a boy, or a boy to make him a girl. Every cell in the human body is either XX or XY, either male or female. The reconstruction of genitals is cosmetic only. Plastic surgery can create “female looking” external genitals” for a boy or “male looking” genitals for a girl but they will not function. We are binary by design (Genesis 1:27), to make reproduction possible (Genesis 1:28).
Phase 5: Supervised hormone therapy
This phase of the Dutch Protocol treatment plan is not publicized.
Your child will have to continue to take toxic cross-sex hormones for the rest of his or her life. These hormones lead to infertility and health risks. Lifelong maintenance of uro-genital plumbing will be essential, and there will always be the problem of leaks and blockages.
This form of treatment for gender dysphoria is experimental
Four studies published in 2018 in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), confirm the lack of scientific basis for the “massive intervention” of the Dutch Protocol treatment plan for childhood gender dysphoria. The AAP calls it “a drastic experimental measure,” not a scientifically proven treatment option.
Is this what you want for your child? Is this what you want to recommend to parents who come to you for advice?
Related posts:
Transgender questions, facts, and concerns 1
Transgender questions, facts, and concerns 2
Transgender questions, facts. and concerns 3
For further reading:
“Childhood Dysphoria and Desistence, Chapter 6 in Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally
American College of Pediatricians, “Gender Dysphoria in Children”
John Whitehall, “Experimenting on Gender Dysphoric Kids”
