Children as young as 12 are receiving drugs to prepare them for sex change!

a reply to: OpenMindedRealist

Well all drugs have the potential to be harmful. This isn't any different. But I don't think there is much risk with hormone blockers. People have testified and have brought studies here and in other threads.

I understand the concern. It's the same with any drug, especially psychotropic ones.

Hormone therapy do actually help transgender children and yes it's reversible.

originally posted by: OpenMindedRealist
a reply to: kaylaluv


At 12, I was capable of being shamefully deceitful and manipulative. If I decided I wanted something, I would go to great lengths to get it, including lying to myself and others. Plenty of kids are like that at one point or another. . Plenty of kids are like that at one point or another.

Imagine that I was lying to myself and others at 12 too...seriously though to compare all children to you who self-admittedly sound like you were a little brat is a bit sweeping is it not? Some children are just more mature and mentally developed than others.

I forget the comedian that said something like:

"So my kids teacher calls me into the school to talk. So they say to me your kid is a little terror, you need to do something. I tell the teacher hey look you only get him 8 hours a day I have to live with the little jerk. Like you don't think I know I have a crappy kid, what do you want me to do?"

a reply to: Deaf Alien
Forget potentially unknown side-effects, that's a whole 'nother thang. There would have to be lasting effects from disrupting hormone levels during puberty. Would you feel comfortable testing that out on your child?

I sure wouldn't want to subject myself to that, no matter how many Doctors tell me it probably won't hurt anything in the long term. Puberty is a period of physical and mental growth. Meddling with the hormones which guide that process seems like asking for trouble.

a reply to: OpenMindedRealist

I would be more concerned with the side affects of suicide. Not at all temporary.

originally posted by: OpenMindedRealist
a reply to: Deaf Alien


I sure wouldn't want to subject myself to that, no matter how many Doctors tell me it probably won't hurt anything in the long term. Puberty is a period of physical and mental growth. Meddling with the hormones which guide that process seems like asking for trouble.

Thats the point exactly that our bodies and minds are not aligned so we are willing to take the risks in exchange for the rewards, anything to be whole and right.

Something you obviously don't understand, I guess you have never wanted anything bad enough to take a risk. What a fulfilling life that must be.

a reply to: TrappedPrincess
Yeah I could be a conniving little bastard back then. Not so little, actually.

In all fairness, if you were lying to yourself then, you would probably be doing the same now. Part of lying to one's self is the refusal to acknowledge it. People lie to themselves about personal identity all the time. Sometimes if we want to be something badly enough, we trick ourselves into believing we possess that trait. Knowing the self, in my opinion, is a lifelong endeavor.

You're loosing me with the risk part. You're telling me gender hormone therapy is a risk in the name of finding happiness, and it's ok for parents to allow a child to take a serious risk like that? Instead of trying to work through it from a psychological angle first?
Are you under the impression that all kids are happy? Happy with their bodies, their intelligence, their strength, their aptitude, their voice, their name? Do you think you were the only unhappy kid?

a reply to: OpenMindedRealist

There would have to be lasting effects from disrupting hormone levels during puberty.

I am not too knowledgeable about that like others so I'll let others answer you. But from what I have read here and elsewhere there is little or no risk.

Would you feel comfortable testing that out on your child?

This is not some kind of experiment. It's a well found study and research. If it is the best course of action for my child then yes.

I sure wouldn't want to subject myself to that, no matter how many Doctors tell me it probably won't hurt anything in the long term.

Of course you wouldn't because you are not a transgender person.

originally posted by: queenofswords

My parents were fairly healthy people, they both exercised regularly. My dad was in the Navy and remains very fit today.

What did your dad do for the Navy?

He was a Seabee. An engineer.

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: Cuervo

Uh? What do you mean "IT". I called nobody an "IT".

Angel of light did several pages back. And defended that by saying that it was a gender neutral pronoun. which makes no sense.

And you DID post this......

It boggles the mind that there are actually people that think it is perfectly normal for a male to think it is a female and female to think it is a male,

It is used here instead of she, he or they.

It is a term for inanimate objects.

Is that what we are to you?

I don't appreciate being both defeminized and dehumanized in one fell swoop... That is INCREDIBLY hurtful to any of us who are trans and disrespectful in general.

originally posted by: queenofswords
You three have successfully derailed this thread and ended any chance of a honest examination of the possibilities.

Far be it for three people who were once trans kids comment on a thread involving a lot of misinformation regarding trans kids, their families and their health care providers right?

What next?

Women not allowed to comment on threads which question or attack women's issues?

Disabled people not allowed to comment on threads which deal with questioning disabled issues?

War vets banned from threads which talk about the wars they fought in?

Minorities not allowed to comment on threads which deal with stories question discrimination against them?

Sorry but we will not be silent because staying silent just breeds ignorances.

I can here it now from some quarters who probably thought life was a lot better like back in the 1970s or something "when those people just killed themselves".

originally posted by: JadeStar

You know, I have held this back for some time but the lady doth protest too much, methinks.

I was thinking that myself, and I'm not even Trans.

A bit too personal. A bit too much angst.

originally posted by: OpenMindedRealist
a reply to: TrappedPrincess
.

You're telling me gender hormone therapy is a risk in the name of finding happiness, and it's ok for parents to allow a child to take a serious risk like that? Instead of trying to work through it from a psychological angle first?
?

Yes, yes, yes this part is good and very much on topic. Yes it absolutely is a risk on the journey to happiness that we who have felt different and wrong since our earliest memories are willing to take. Parents ultimately make that decision but they have their child and medical professionals to listen to. The psychological part is assessed during that process so the best decision can be made.

Thank you for at least that part of your post allowing me to hopefully shine some light on this sensitive subject for you.

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A really interesting article about the struggles parents go through with their transgender children.

nymag.com...

I thought this was interesting:

Many parents feel the same way. Though they would not hesitate to treat their child with serious drugs for a serious disease, they often see gender transition as frivolous or elective, and the blockers as mysterious, possibly destructive chemicals. In fact, they are synthetic versions of naturally occurring hormones, and have been used for decades to treat endometriosis in women and prostate cancer in men. Dr. Hembree tells parents that aside from the rare allergic response and the ­occasional hot flash, there are no adverse consequences, and that the puberty-­suppressing effect is completely reversible merely by ceasing treatment. To him, and to many parents for whom the blockers buy time to see how their child’s transgenderism develops or doesn’t, it’s a miracle treatment, albeit an expensive one; each monthly injection of Lupron, the most commonly used brand, costs about $600 in the United States, and is not always covered by ­insurance. A typical treatment lasting six or more years may add up to more than $50,000.

Here's another article - a much more scholarly one- that covers the technical difference between the terms "transgender" and "transsexual". It also goes over some of the history of transgenderism, and "gender bending" that has been going on for centuries.

www.randomhistory.com...

Cross-dressing holds a relatively prominent place in the theater, from ancient Greece to the Elizabethan stage to Peter Pan—but transsexuality in Western society prior to its mid-century blossoming is quite anecdotal. In her Handbook on Transsexuality, Rachel Ann Heath neatly summarizes Richard Green’s 1966 treatise on the history of transsexualism in culture entitled, “Mythological, Historical, and Cross-Cultural Aspects of Transsexualism.” Greek mythology suggests the goddess Venus Castina was sympathetic “to feminine souls locked up in male bodies” while an ancient Assyrian king purportedly dressed in women’s clothes in order to sew among his wives (Heath 2006). Green suggested that there is evidence of gender role discontent among both the ancient societies of Greece and Rome that even reached as high as the Emperor Nero, who may have forced a sex change onto a slave. Cross-gendered behavior in recent centuries include a male French diplomat becoming a mistress of King Louis XV to a colonial governor of New York dressing as a woman even during his tenure in office (Green 1998).

I wonder if there was something in the water in Ancient Greece.

Shoot with co-pay I pay about $15.00 a month for my testosterone blocker spirolactone (include my estrogen, estradiol in that $15 too). I'm not sure if maybe there is a difference between what adults vs children should take.

a reply to: kaylaluv



I would also like to add that I gave up smoking to minimize the risk of blood clots, the most serious of the side affects in my opinion. Estrogen and Nicotine do not mix very well so I gave up a nasty, expensive and disgusting habit to complete myself as a person. So there is one way how fulfilling my goal has made me healthier. I also try to be active more, nobody wants a lady with a beer belly and flabby arms so I have to keep all this tone. My complexion is amazing these days too and my blood pressure has wen't down.

I'm starting to get carried away with all the benefits of this decision lol, let me stop.

originally posted by: kaylaluv
A really interesting article about the struggles parents go through with their transgender children.

nymag.com...

I thought this was interesting:

Many parents feel the same way. Though they would not hesitate to treat their child with serious drugs for a serious disease, they often see gender transition as frivolous or elective, and the blockers as mysterious, possibly destructive chemicals. In fact, they are synthetic versions of naturally occurring hormones, and have been used for decades to treat endometriosis in women and prostate cancer in men. Dr. Hembree tells parents that aside from the rare allergic response and the ­occasional hot flash, there are no adverse consequences, and that the puberty-­suppressing effect is completely reversible merely by ceasing treatment. To him, and to many parents for whom the blockers buy time to see how their child’s transgenderism develops or doesn’t, it’s a miracle treatment, albeit an expensive one; each monthly injection of Lupron, the most commonly used brand, costs about $600 in the United States, and is not always covered by ­insurance. A typical treatment lasting six or more years may add up to more than $50,000.

Excellent article kayla, thanks for posting it.

I was on Lupron and it is true that it is expensive, and at the time its use as a hormone blocker for trans kids was not covered by my parents health insurance so they paid out of pocket for it.

I started Lupron at 13 and stopped at 17 (which was two years after I began estrogen injections) so for me it was only 4 years of taking it rather than 6.

One of the reasons I didn't wait beyond 17 for sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) besides the fact that I wanted it as soon as possible, was because I could stop taking Lupron and costing my parents a lot of money they'd need for college books and tuition. My parents are not rich.

So I asked at 16 if I could schedule my SRS and they agreed. BTW: I'm a transsexual woman but I use the term trans or transgender because they're broad categories - all transsexuals are trans but not all trans are transsexuals. I don't even like the term transsexual because it has the word sex in it which for a lot of people puts the focus on sexual stuff rather than the process which it describes.

That's why I prefer to say "girl born differently" or "woman born differently".

PS: Before I began taking estrogen at 15 my mom was concerned and asked my dad if I shouldn't continue just on the blockers postponing puberty and my dad answered "why would we just postpone puberty if development is what she wants at this point?"

I just smiled and cried a little out of happiness.

a reply to: JadeStar

Well, I'm just so glad for you that you had such supportive parents who loved you enough to make these kinds of decisions. If they hadn't, I just don't know if you would be here today. Don't forget Father's day is coming up!

So, yesterday at the park my 7 year old grandson comes up to me and says: "Gramma, I think I'm a girl". Horrified gasps from the other mothers sitting on the park bench. I just responded: "OK".

I let him be who he is. I don't make a big deal about it. His natural behaviors seem to lean "boy", but who knows.

He is high functioning autistic. This journey is an "Open Road".

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: JadeStar

Well, I'm just so glad for you that you had such supportive parents who loved you enough to make these kinds of decisions. If they hadn't, I just don't know if you would be here today. Don't forget Father's day is coming up!

I know! I never forget. I try to get him the best Father's Day present and card every year too!!!!! :hearts: