Earlier this year, the New York Times published opinion pieces asking whether attempting to dissuade a young child from “transitioning” amounted to child abuse or “conversion therapy.” There are many excellent reader comments on those pieces, and the comments section is still open. Here is one of them:
Studies have shown that, without puberty blockers, youngsters with gender identity disorder recover and no longer identify with the opposite sex at a rate of over 80%. That has been well studied. With puberty blockers, 0% of the children recover. There are no recorded cases of a child being put on puberty blockers and NOT continuing on to cross-hormone therapy. This makes sense, as puberty blockers also block the mental maturation that comes with puberty, so, the 16 year old “choosing” to go onto cross-sex hormones has the mental maturity of the eager to conform 9 year old who went onto the blockers. Think about that. Every child put on puberty blockers is being put on a path where their bodies are never fully consistent with their presentation. They are infertile, they require medical attention and replacement hormones for the rest of their lives, and there remains a high rate of suicide and mental illness in that population.
