Nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender

They Paused Puberty, but Is There a Cost? 2022/11/14 00:00

• URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20221119153223/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html
• Posted: Nov. 14, 2022
• Topics: puberty blockers transgender healthcare
• Summary: «Puberty blockers can ease transgender youths’ anguish and buy time to weigh options. But concerns are growing about long-term physical effects and other consequences.» A bit of think of the children scaremongering from your friendly neighborhood newspaper.

• source: New York Times
• authors: Megan Twohey and Christina Jewett

Quotes

• «concerns are growing among some medical professionals about the consequences of the drugs, a New York Times examination found.» citation needed
• «The questions are fueling government reviews in Europe, prompting a push for more research and leading some prominent specialists to reconsider at what age to prescribe them and for how long.» citation needed
• «A small number of doctors won’t recommend them at all.» How does that number compare to the fairly large number of doctors who are simply prejudiced against trans people, and will avoid treating them without citing reasons?
• «“There’s going to be a price,” said Dr. Sundeep Khosla, who leads a bone research lab at the Mayo Clinic. “And the price is probably going to be some deficit in skeletal mass.”» Is that risk demonstrably more than the risk of suicide from not treating?
• «In 2015, four prominent American gender clinics were awarded $7 million to examine the effects of blockers and hormone treatment on transgender youth. In explaining their study, the researchers pointed out that the United States had produced no data on the impact or safety of blockers, particularly among transgender patients under 12, leaving a “gap in evidence for this practice.” Seven years in, they have yet to report key outcomes of their work, but say the findings are coming soon.» So why are we fearmongering about it now? Why not wait for the data?

Related

• 2022/11/25 [L..T] WPATH Experts Rebuke NYT on Puberty Blockers «On November 22 the medical organization responsible for setting standards for providers of gender affirming care, WPATH, released a statement in response to the terrible New York Times piece on puberty blockers. Saying that the Times piece “furthers the atmosphere of misinformation and subjectivity,” WPATH did not mince words, condemning the use of sources unfamiliar with transgender medicine as well as some of the methods undertaken by the Times reporters.»
• 2022/11/17 [L..T] The NYT's Big Piece on Puberty Blockers Mucked Up the Most Important Point About Them «It’s a common error for certain journalists to make—viewing an essential piece of transgender health care as a newfangled, untested invention that may pose grave harm.» «It’s true they have downsides and that they aren’t right for every young person with gender dysphoria—but this is true of every medication, no matter the patient population. The mainstream medical consensus is that blockers are a useful tool in treating gender dysphoria, and more data is coming in all the time to support their efficacy in the patients for whom they’re indicated.»
• 2022/11/14 [L..T] NYT Investigation Offers Biased Reporting on Puberty Blocker Concerns «It's an overtly biased piece of work, and will no doubt spur a heck of a lot of articles from trans people, and allies, seeking to fact check and provide context and criticism on where the Times reporters, Megan Twohey and Christina Jewett, went so wrong. As our specific beat is media criticism, this piece will highlight the clearest journalistic errors, weaselly phrasing, and other poor choices made in the writing and editing of this piece.»

Right-Wingosphere

• 2022-11-15 National Catholic Register ‘There’s Going to Be a Price’: 6 Takeaways From Alarming NYTimes Report on Puberty Blockers
• 2022-11-14 Daily Caller ‘There’s Going To Be A Price’: Growing Body Of Evidence Disputes Claims That Puberty Blockers Are Safe, Reversible: WHAT EVIDENCE

Discussion

• Mike Pesca on Twitter:
  • 2022-11-19 11:48 «Here's my response to Parker, who summarized the article as "On one hand, here's what doctors say... on the other, 'Republican politicians and other critics' say"» -- which seems like kind of an accurate description?
  • 2022-11-19 11:29: several links, including to reasonable sources
  • 2022-11-19 11:26 «I had to join Mastodon to get called a bigot by @ParkerMolloy because I said a well reported NYT article complicated a common claim around puberty blockers. Seems a huge difference from Twitter.»