On the myth that puberty blockers are reversible

Puberty blockers have been used for decades to treat central precocious puberty (CPP), a condition where puberty starts much earlier than acceptable (before 8 for girls, before 9 for boys). Endocrinologists often say “we’ve used puberty blockers for decades, why all the fuss?”when they disingenuously mean for CPP, not for gender non-conforming children. For CPP, puberty blockers “block” this process, allow the child to grow chronologically older, before the injections are ceased, their blocking effects are “reversed”, and puberty continues at a more suitable age.

But this is not what happens in the treatment of gender non-conforming children.

Dr Annelou de Vries is one of the leading Dutch researchers into this protocol. Her work and that of her colleagues is frequently cited by gender clinics as the justification for their practice (and often misrepresented, particularly around regret, which I will address in the near future). Here, she clearly states that puberty blockers are not a pause, they are not reversed, and for the vast majority of children they are the first step on a progressive pathway.

There were two important consequences of this. The first is that the Tavistock could not produce any data to say either way whether this was true for their clinic or not. If you read on after paragraph 57, they had no real idea, but concurred overall (59). A lack of data in gender clinics is a concern.

The second consequence is that the judges considered this an important part of their ruling, particularly around consent. If children starting puberty blockers progress, at a rate of more than 98%, to cross sex hormones, then the consent process at the start of puberty blockers has to consider this. Can a child fully understand these implications?

In the setting of treating children with gender incongruence, puberty blockers are almost never reversed. The consequences are lifelong.

Why then, do gender clinics consistently claim that puberty blockers are reversible? Many members of the public believe that this “pause” gives children time to think about their identity. It is, the public thinks, during this time they decide whether or not they will progress with the treatment pathway onto cross sex hormones. Many members of the public think children might decide not to proceed. But we know hardly any do. So why do the gender clinics insist on misleading the public that this is a common outcome?

Source: https://drdylanwilson.substack.com/p/on-the-myth-that-puberty-blockers/comments?s=r