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I got into an argument on JK Rowling recently. That was mildly annoying, but then it shifted to transgender stuff in general, and the puberty blocker discussion in particular was very vexing to me. I just genuinely don't know how anyone can be okay with the idea, especially now that we know way more about it than we did 10 years ago. The dismissal of the Cass Review on the part of the pro-trans side has increasingly looked like the stereotypical right winger doing mental somersaults to any science they dislike. But I have some questions on it, there were some things I didn't have great answers to.
What are the actual requirements for getting prescribed puberty blockers? The pro-trans tribe insists that it is a very rigorous process involving thorough checking of gender dysphoria, and it's not commonly done, despite being a readily available tool in the toolbox of clinical practice. I do not believe this after examples I have seen, but I have nothing to cite.
Is there any actual scientific evidence in favor of social contagion playing any part in transgenderism? The pro-trans tribe claims that social contagion plays no role, and to me, it's trivially true that social contagion plays an astounding part, as well as fetishism and abuse, and autism. I have no idea how many kids genuinely become gender dysphoric due to genetics, if there are any at all. And if there are any, I certainly don't think that it's a given that they need puberty blockers. How the hell did that become the default? But anyway, has The Science turned up anything on social contagion?
Are there any actually valid critiques of the Cass Review? Pro-trans tribe will cite the Yale Law retort, then when I point out the responses to it, either holes are poked in them or they just go back to their priors that the Cass Review was methodologically bad, done by a transphobe, misinterpreted studies, and went against the scientific consensus and ruined its own credibility. Actually, they say the same about the recent HHS Report. Please show me if there are any published valid critiques of the Cass Review besides the Yale thing.
What are the probabilities of serious consequences from puberty blockers? I brought up infertility, and the pro-trans tribe claimed that it's actually a very low chance and that it's not anyone's business anyway because not everyone wants to have kids. The latter half of that is completely inane when we're talking about life changing decisions for a demographic that cannot consent, but the former, I don't know. Do puberty blockers cause the infertility, the loss of ability to orgasm, and the complete lack of penis tissue with which to create a neovagina, or is it the ensuing hormones that do this?
Sadly, none of this will do anything to convince anyone on either side anyway. There's really no way out of this hole that has been created. Sometimes, I kind of hate this world. I really thought "don't give minors seriously debilitating life changing pills to solve a solely mental disorder" was an easy hill to stand on, but the fighting was just as vicious as anything else with the gender issue.
Edited to be slightly less angry.
Psychology itself isn’t that rigorous, and especially if you’re dealing entirely with self-reported phenomena, it’s not particularly good at skepticism. If I go complaining of feeling sad for several weeks I can get diagnosed with depression. If you go in claiming to lose stuff a lot (whatever you personally consider “a lot”) you can get diagnosed with ADHD. As such I tend to be skeptical of trans diagnosis simply from my experience of being diagnosed adhd — it took ten minutes and I didn’t even go in seeking a diagnosis.
Which also becomes a problem when the symptoms of these disorders are known. People want to be diagnosed, and with helpful checklists, they know what to say to get that. Kids who want to be trans know what to say to the shrink before the first session. And there’s a good chance that a psychiatrist isn’t going to look into whether the person is lying or exaggerating symptoms. There are no fake symptoms that people think are true of trans people but aren’t.
As far as social contagion, I think it’s just like anything else. Most teens crave acceptance and if you’re vulnerable, being told that some trait is desirable they’ll at least fake it to fit in or be cool. And there are examples all over TikTok of kids faking all kinds of mental illnesses up to and including having multiple personalities. It seems like it would be weird if this is the one illness nobody fakes, especially when much of our culture celebrates it as the cool disorder.
Really? I thought it was very hard to get an ADHD diagnosis, especially as an adult.
Massively depends on the country in question. I've been trying to get ADHD medication for over 2 years in Eastern Europe with no success so far.
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