Most teenagers who start puberty suppression treatments go on to receive other sex change treatments, according to a new study from the Netherlands published Thursday in The Lancet.
The study comes amid a debate regarding the treatment of dysphoria. Past studies have shown that a clear majority of teenagers with gender dysphoria go on to identify with their biological sex. A 2013 study for Steensma found that the majority of children desisted later in adolescence. A 2008 study found that 88% of girls desisted after followups following feelings of gender dysphoria. A more recent study from 2021 confirmed that an average of 87.8% of dyspeptic boys become comfortable with their biological sex in later years.
The high rate of teens in this study who receive pubertal suppressants and go on to continue sex change treatments indicates that puberty blockers play a role in keeping children from becoming comfortable with their biological sex.
The study examined 720 patients under the age of 18 with gender dysphoria who went to the gender identity clinic of Amsterdam UMC for treatment. The patients received puberty suppressants for a minimum of three months.
Of those studied, 98% went on to receive sex change hormones after receiving puberty suppressants as teenagers. (RELATED: ‘They’re On The Run’: Hospitals Caught Providing Sex Change Treatments To Minors Seem To Follow The Same Playbook)
“Most participants who started gender-affirming hormones in adolescence continued this treatment into adulthood. The continuation of treatment is reassuring considering the worries that people who started treatment in adolescence might discontinue gender-affirming treatment,” the study reads.
Most teens who start puberty suppression continue gender-affirming care, study finds https://t.co/ZShvctSSc7
— NPR Health News (@NPRHealth) October 26, 2022
The study helps reveal the extent to which puberty suppressants for underage children leads makes them more likely to undergo other invasive and irreversible hormone treatments and sex change surgeries. Medical professionals, such as Fenway Health, warn that puberty blockers may effect future fertility in individuals undergoing the treatment.
Other reactions, however, argued that the study showed a lack of regrets in transition. “The study is of particular interest given the great speculation that surrounds this issue, especially among children and young people,” Adrián Carrasco Munera, a specialist in family and community medicine said in reaction to the study. “The study aims to demonstrate, with a methodology that is more than adequate, that transgender people who begin their transition in childhood-adolescence do not give up.”
“These findings can and should help and guide the current public and legal debate on the initiation of medical treatment in transgender minors,” Gilberto Pérez López, Endocrinology Specialist at the Endocrinology and Nutrition Service of Barcelona’s Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, said.
A recent poll conducted by Summit Ministries and McLaughlin and Associates found that American voters believe the transgender movement has gone too far in recommending sex change hormones and surgeries for children. A full 65% of voters, including 44% of Biden voters, said the transgender movement had gone too far in recommending sex change surgeries and drugs to minors.
