For The Children

With so much brew-ha over trans students I found a common sense article about children transitioning. The article is about medical process children go through.

Looking at suppressing puberty for transgender kids
Dr. Christine McGinn, a New Hope-based plastic surgeon specializing in transgender surgery, believes strongly that early identification of gender dysphoria can spare transgender children a great deal of anguish as they grow up.
Burlington County Times
Posted: March 6, 2016
By Freda R. Savana, staff writer

For transgender children and their families, knowing if and when to begin the transitioning process can be an agonizing decision fraught with physical, social and psychological concerns.
Until the past decade, transgender people had to wait until adulthood for surgery and/or hormone therapy to physically change their bodies to match the gender they identified with. But today's transgender youth have new medical options that can allow them to start the process at a much younger age.

The article then goes on to talk about the drugs that the children are giving to block puberty.

The drugs, called gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs, freeze development before a child begins showing signs of secondary sex characteristics such as voice changes, genital enlargement and breasts. While the drugs have been used for years to treat premature puberty, using them for transgender children hasn't been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration and remains an "off label" use of the medication.

Suspending puberty allows the child time to explore the gender identity he or she feels is the correct one, without the crisis that puberty can bring for transgender kids, explained Dr. Norman P. Spack, associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a founder of Boston Children's Hospital's Gender Management Service.

The medical community realizes that allowing a child to go through puberty in the wrong gender that they identify with cause harm to the children.

Dr. Christine McGinn, a New Hope-based plastic surgeon specializing in transgender surgery, believes strongly that early identification of gender dysphoria, in which people believe their born gender isn't their correct gender, can spare transgender children a great deal of anguish as they grow up.

Despite society's increased understanding of transgenderism, transgender people continue to risk assault, loss of jobs, loss of their children and other family support, when the transition comes later in life and the ability to be accepted as a trans male or female may be more difficult, the doctor said. "If they can identify (as transgenders [sic]) as a child, all that can be prevented," said McGinn.

However, some question whether a preteen or young adolescent is able to fully understand hormone-blocking treatment.

But the thing with puberty blockers is that the effects are fully reversible. All they do is to allow more time for the child to decide and parents are coming around also.

Michele Angello, a Wayne, Delaware County, psychologist specializing in transgender clients, said, "there's been a drastic paradigm shift in parental relationships with their children."

In the past, parents wanted to know how to "fix their (transgender)," she said. But now, parents ask "how can we make sense of this so we can support our child?"

Now if only legislators will only do the same thing instead of seeing who can come up with the most draconian law.