Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at NHS England gender identity clinics in a new “blow” to gender-affirming healthcare.
Puberty blockers are a type of medicine that prevent puberty from starting by blocking the hormones – like testosterone and oestrogen – that lead to puberty-related changes in the body. In the case of trans youth, this can delay unwanted physical changes like menstruation, breast growth, voice changes or facial hair growth.
On Tuesday (12 March), NHS England confirmed the medicine, which has been described as “life-saving” medical care for trans youth, will only be available to young people as part of clinical research trials.
The government described the move as a “landmark decision”, Sky News reported. It believed such a move is in the “best interests of the child”.
I’m a provider at a children’s hospital. I specialize in orthopedics and rehabilitation, so I mostly deal with the musculoskeletal system. I have colleagues who would be able to provide a much better and more in depth explanation, but I will do my best.
Even in orthopedics “hormone blockers” are used fairly frequently. For example the same drugs that people use to transition are utilized to moderate the epiphyseal fusion of growth plates. Puberty is also frequently delayed to moderate the hormone levels of juvenile cancer patients. Or even more increasingly common, to halt the symptoms of precocious puberty in young women.
The vast majority of juveniles prescribed hormones to delay puberty are for non gender affirming care like cancer. The problem with moderating what medical providers can and can’t treat is that you are assuming you know more about medicine than the a person who went to medical school.
You may be trying to protect kids, but what ends up happening is an interference of medical care, and usually not the type you intended. If hormone drugs become more monitored, providers may be hesitant, or have a more difficult brine prescribing it.
The dangers of delaying puberty are very small, when you stop the prescription puberty begins again. Usually the only side effect is excessive growth due to a delay if epiphyseal fusion. In regards to gender affirming care, I will remind people that their providers are looking at total outcomes. Meaning they are factoring in things like the higher potentiality of self harm and suicide.
Thank you for your reply! This is good information
refers to self as provider
Definitely not a doctor.
Provider is actually the preferred terminology in most hospitals nowadays. It helps transition away from physicians being the “captain of the ship” to a more team based medical approach.
It also helps boost patient confidence in the entire medical team, especially in places like where I work, where there are a lot of residents and PAs doing the bulk of the patient care.
The AMA literally says the opposite:
https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/a-23-omss-resolution-5.pdf
The only people pushing “provider” are administrators who would prefer to muddy the waters with regards to who providers care, and the midlevels who benefit.
Lol, Idk. Do people go to medical school for the title, or to actually help people?
I like the team approach, and I think referring to everyone as a provider is especially good for my residents, some of which will occasionally think they know more than a PA-C who’s been here for 30 years, just because they don’t have an MD after their name.
The only doctors that care about being called doctor are residents who think too highly of themselves, or the dinosaurs who hate patient care and only got into the field for the prestige.
You can feel about it however you’d like, but the term provider was purposely used to justify different care without patients being aware.
It’s not a matter of a 30 year PA vs a resident, experience certainly matters. But I take issue when you claim medical knowledge because you’re a “provider”, and especially because you work in a pediatric hospital. The role of a pediatric endocrinologist and an ortho PA almost don’t overlap, and the background schooling almost don’t either.
That’s not to say I’m particularly qualified either (it’s outside my specialty) but you infer that you’re qualified to comment when you and I both know, frankly, you’re not.
Yeah really. Trust the science. Trust the doctors. NHS says it and it will be so.