Here’s The Best Thing Adults Can Tell Kids Who Claim ‘Gender Dysphoria’

Teens are experiencing increasing anxiety and depression. They don’t need to hear that they can solve their problems by having sex with the opposite gender. It is important for them to feel heard, to have compassion, and to be able to explore their pain.

The world we live in wants us to solve every problem, then move on. We physicians are keen to offer concrete help, and I often feel that way as a physician. There are so many ailments that we don’t completely understand and often we just write a prescription.

This isn’t because we don’t care, but we do fall into the same trap as parents and counselors. We hate to see kids hurt, so we do our best to give any help — even if it’s a band aid. But now we’ve walked into dangerous territory. When kids come to us and say they are gender confused or dysphoric, we are too quick to advise a dangerous solution — medical transition.

Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, director of the University of California San Francisco’s Mental Health Department, said, “Parents say to us, ‘what do you really know about the long-term effects of puberty blockers? Who has really studied the children over 20 years?’ We say: ‘That’s what we plan to do.’”

Gender dysphoria can be a complicated issue. I am afraid of sending my children down the path of “fixing” Their dysphoria will only worsen if they are treated with surgery and hormones.

A few years back, a young boy whom I had seen since he was little came to me to say he wanted a transition to becoming a woman. It was becoming more difficult for him to understand and was depressed. He wore camouflage pants and sparkly nail varnish. One half of his hair was shaved, while the other was long. My heart dropped because I could name the reasons he was depressed, and one was that he didn’t want to be a woman.

He was the oldest of his four siblings. His mom and dad divorced. The two younger children were unable to cope with the divorce. He took over the responsibility. “parent” them. His father was a drug addict who sold drugs from his home on the nights that his children stayed with him.

“I would hear men’s voices in the living room after we went to bed. I cringed. They were using drugs. Some of them would say weird things about sex and I was terrified they would come in one of our rooms and hurt my sisters.”

As the years went on, he kept going to his dad’s because the court said he had to. His mother knew that this was happening but was too scared to confront her ex-husband because she feared he would become violent. She met a boyfriend, and he moved in. “He hated us” My patient said. “We never liked being around him because he was mean.”

He did this for many years. We talked for hours and he would cry every time he entered my office.

When he was twelve years old, he came to me and his mother. She did most of all the talking.

About halfway through her appointment, she said: “We need to call him Clare now, Dr. Meeker. He wants to transition to a girl and we fully support that.” From my experience, parents are frequently the ones to push for gender transition, believing they’re genuinely helping their kids.

My patient stared at me. He looked empty.

“We’re taking him to U. Michigan to the gender transition clinic,” According to his mother.

I tried to get them waiting. “We need to treat his depression aggressively before we consider this,” I said.

Research was also mentioned. A 30-year-long Swedish study found that transgender patients were 19 percent more likely to commit suicide after gender reassignment. Transgender patients who change from male to feminine are at higher risk.

My pleas were unsuccessful. I asked him to go to the University of Michigan. This is what he told us. After being interviewed by two therapists, he spent an hour with a doctor. After that, he was sent home with the first round puberty blocking medication. I felt sick. He was a 12-year-old boy I knew. After three hours of talking, they began to change the course of his life.

All across the country, this is what’s happening. Although they are good-intentioned, health care workers can be very dangerous. The problem is, they don’t know these kids. They give them a ‘fix’ They are eager to help. But giving kids growth hormones to stop puberty doesn’t help.

A plethora data exists on the negative effects of children who are transitioning. Stan Weed and Irene Ericksen, researchers at The Institute for Research and Evaluation, meticulously reviewed hundreds upon hundreds of papers. Here’s a list. A summary Here’s what they found:

First, “Scientific evidence

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases