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Edmund's two requests for information (+ping Lial)
Posted by Pharmakon on 2023-October-21 00:00:52, SaturdayIn reply to Two requests for information posted by Edmund on 2023-October-18 04:32:49, Wednesday
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I am not sure I am all that well informed on trans issues (maybe Lial or others could help). Nearly every fact about trans seems to be contested at this point. But I do think the answers to your two questions are at least relatively straightforward, so I will give it a shot. Since it's been a minute, here are your questions again: 1. Is the idea behind puberty blockers, that the child will be able to keep himself pre-pubescent until he actually undergoes the operation to "change" sex? How young are children anywhere now allowed to have this operation? 1. Sex reassignment surgery ("bottom surgery") is rarely performed before age 18. You didn't specify the Anglosphere in this question, but this statement seems especially true in that part of the world. Where earlier surgeries have occurred, these mostly have been outside the Anglosphere or on the age borderline (e.g., 17 yos), though especially in the US where medicine is heavily market driven a decision whether to perform surgeries earlier is, except in individual states that have enacted laws restricting care, up to individual doctors. "Top surgery," however, (or chest masculinization, which can include not just breast removal but apparently some other modifications) is becoming increasingly common during early or mid-teens for transboys. Puberty blockers are rarely if ever used to cover the entire time up until sex reassignment surgery. Rather, they are used to cover the time from when puberty begins (now on average at around age 8 or 9 for girls and 9 or 10 for boys) up to when cross-sex hormone therapy begins. Typically this was at about age 16, though recent guidelines changes suggest it is permissible to start hormone therapy at age 14. Puberty blockers prevent puberty from beginning. Cross-sex hormones induce a feminizing puberty in transgirls or a masculinizing puberty in transboys. Blockers would be stopped when hormone therapy begins. If blockers are not used, by the time a transkid is 14 (or 16) they are likely to be well into the puberty changes typical of the gender they are trying to transition from, and hormone therapy may struggle to reverse these changes. 2. "Social transition" for prepubescents is definitely becoming much more common in the US and throughout the Anglosphere. This is fairly described by your second sentence ("7-year-olds are allowed to try out acting like girls, dressing like them at home and school etc."). However, your first sentence uses different language: trying a "third gender option." These may not be at all the same thing. A 7 yo AMAB ("assigned male at birth," pardon the specialized vocabulary but there are reasons for it) who tries out dressing and behaving as a girl is arguably experimenting with the other of the two conventionally recognized genders, not with a third. My sense is that third gender options (like "gender fluid" or "nonbinary") are somewhat popular among teens, but less so among prepubescents. Also, I think transkids who do not identify as "opposite" gender are much less likely to pursue medical transition, which after all seems primarily aimed at "passing" as male (for a transboy) or female (for a transgirl). I hope this was helpful. NOTE ON TOP SURGERY In the above I have tried to provide factual information responsive to your questions and to avoid giving my own opinions. But I feel compelled to add a brief comment about the increasing prevalence of top surgery for early and mid-teens, as I suspect this may be triggering for some. In social terms, having breasts poses a different kind of problem for a transboy than having a penis. It's not surprising that there is a demand for top surgery at younger ages. Shouldn't puberty blockers solve this problem by preventing breast development? Maybe not, or not always, or maybe this is a problem faced mostly by transboys who did not receive blockers before their breast development began. (It's easy to guess why they might not have.) Two additional facts seem worth considering in this context. First, transboys with developed or developing breasts often resort to binding, which is a painful and unhealthy practice. Second, breast reduction surgeries for cis girls are considered medically ethical for the purpose of improving body self-image (and thus mental health), and such surgeries are likely much more numerous than top surgeries for transboys. Granted, breast reduction does not impair future lactation, while trans top surgery does, so the two are not comparable. But the lack of controversy over the former procedure still seems of some relevance. hugzu ;-p  |
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