good morning to everyone, especially JKR… https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56601386

Hmm, I’m interested to see how this plays out in various media. As an overly anxious parent of a soon to be teenager, it’s a relief to have something a bit more solid to back up concerns about this course of treatment. It’s all become such a minefield.

yes, agree. i just hope that this, and other studies, will stop the whole “denying trans kids essential health care” mantra - it’s such a dangerous line, and entices people in to be sympathetic to the cause (why would anyone want to deny kids lifesaving health care?) all the while obfuscating the truth.

Hopefully thought provoking for many and an impetus to look further into medical interventions. Although I’m told NICE has a reputation for producing negative interpretations.

This is a good article related to this study examining the concept that affirmation is in itself a gay conversion therapy - from Transgender Trend. https://www.transgendertrend.com/affirmation-gay-conversion-therapy-children-young-people/ ‘ The results of an important new study from Singh, Bradley & Zucker on gender identity & sexual orientation of clinic-referred pre-pubertal boys are consistent with the results of all previous studies of persistence and desistance. Using the largest sample to date, with a follow-up mean age of 20.58 years, the study found only a 12.2% persistence rate. 87.8 % desisted and 63.6% grew up to be gay. We know that under a watchful waiting approach around 80% of children outgrow gender dysphoria and the most likely outcome is same-sex orientation in adulthood. Becoming transsexual as an adult is the least likely outcome. A 2013 research study by Steensma et al found that social transition is the most powerful predictor of persistence of childhood gender dysphoria. In other words, social transition of pre-pubertal children may prevent them from growing up to be gay. So what is ‘gender identity’ doing on the MoU on conversion therapy when there is a risk that affirmation and social transition is a form of gay conversion therapy in itself?’

evidence for puberty blockers use very low