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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWould you say he has the cognitive capabilities to give up on any of those future abilities \u2013 for the rest of his life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, of course, you wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0These types of major decisions should only be made by someone who has already experienced them first hand\u00a0and knows what he or she\u2019s forsaking. So why are\u00a0medical\u00a0experts\u00a0encouraging\u00a0young\u00a0children to\u00a0embark on\u00a0massively disruptive procedures that could prevent them from enjoying some of the greatest pleasures of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m talking about prescribing puberty blockers and other meds that prep pre-teens for a transition from one gender identity to another. However, new research reveals a shocking side effect: Gender dysphoric kids who take puberty blockers \u2013 which are meant to delay or entirely block the normal development of secondary sexual characteristics \u2013 may never be able to have an orgasm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Marci Bowers, a vaginoplasty surgeon who herself transitioned when she was 38, spoke recently at a virtual conference hosted by Duke University<\/a>.\u00a0“Every\u00a0single child or adolescent who was truly blocked atTanner Stage 2 [when hormones begin their work of advancing a child to adulthood]\u00a0has never experienced orgasm.\u00a0<\/strong>I mean, it’s really about zero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is most acute for boys, where going on blockers means the adolescent won\u2019t generate enough, if any, testosterone. As a result, the boy\u2019s genitals won\u2019t develop to maturity, leading to a \u201clack of skin for creating a female vulva\u201d if vaginoplasty is eventually chosen, Bowers added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former editor of\u00a0The New Republic<\/em>\u00a0and host of\u00a0The Dishcast<\/em>, Andrew Sullivan, got even more graphic on a recent episode of his podcast<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you are a prepubescent boy and they decide to put you on puberty blockers and, in due course, on cross-sex hormones before the natural testosterone of puberty hits you, one of the side effects is that the boy won\u2019t have the material to turn into a clitoris,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cSo not only will this boy be sterilized, he will never experience orgasm as a woman. How do you explain to a nine-year-old that they will never have an orgasm when they don\u2019t even know what an orgasm is!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the decision-making process has been set up as a false binary with parents being admonished, \u201cWould you rather have a live girl or a dead boy?\u201d Sullivan noted, referring to data from the Trevor Project<\/a> that found half of pre-transition transgender boys and girls considered suicide in the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But are meds and surgery the only way to prevent such outcomes? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jewish tradition is surprisingly supportive of what we\u2019d today call gender fluidity. The Mishna, for example, describes six different genders<\/a>. In addition to \u201cmale\u201d (zachar) and \u201cfemale\u201d (nekevah), we also find:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have no problem with individuals choosing to change their sexual identification. Rather, it\u2019s the pushing of irreversible medical intervention before consent can be reasonably given that gets my gender goat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not the position of the American Medical Association, which states<\/a> that \u201cstandards of care and accepted medically necessary services that affirm gender or treat gender dysphoria may include mental health counseling, non-medical social transition, gender-affirming hormone therapy, and\/or gender-affirming surgeries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tide may be changing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to Bowers\u2019 clarion call, clinics in Finland and Sweden have now \u201cstopped\u00a0routine hormonal treatment of youth under age 18 and put psychological interventions and social support ahead of medical interventions,\u201d wrote Carol Tavris in\u00a0Skeptic<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So-called \u201cdetransitioners\u201d (people who transitioned from one gender to another and then returned) are starting to speak up, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have this intense rage over the harm that was done to me,\u201d\u00a0detransitioner\u00a0Julie, 27,\u00a0told\u00a0Common Sense<\/em> contributor Suzy Weiss<\/a>.\u00a0Julie called her treatment\u00a0a \u201ccollaborative idiocy,\u201d\u00a0drawing together her parents, therapists and doctors. \u201cIt took a goddamn village.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What should we do instead? The answer may be found in an experience my wife, Jody, and I had while attending a class reunion at Oberlin College a few years back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oberlin is a big biking town, so shortly after we arrived, we visited the campus cycle shop to rent two-wheelers for the weekend. We were greeted by a lovely salesperson with a long beard and a deep voice wearing a dress<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t ask if our salesperson had plans to medically transition at some point. That wasn\u2019t the point, in any case; rather it was that you can identify however you like without medication and without surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why can\u2019t we promote this kind of approach instead of puberty blockers? It would take a societal change, to be sure \u2013 an acceptance of new modalities for gender identification \u2013 but isn\u2019t that better than inflicting indelible changes on youth too young to know what they\u2019re signing up for? After all, a biological male in a dress with a penis can still experience orgasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Corrina Cohn, who had sex reassignment surgery when she was 19, may have what\u2019s the most felicitous last word. \u201cSex is essential in healthy relationships,\u201d she wrote in\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>. \u201cGive it a chance before permanently altering your body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I first shared my discomfort with puberty blockers at The Jerusalem Post<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo by\u00a0Sharon McCutcheon<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Does giving pre-teens puberty blockers constitute child abuse? Can a nine-year-old choose to give up on something as fundamental as sexual pleasure?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,66,11,117],"tags":[500,499,502,504,497,498,501,503],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7782"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7789,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7782\/revisions\/7789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}