6.1 Should I Take Hormones and Puberty Blockers?

This page contains videos testimonies of several people who took cross sex hormones.  Why did they choose to do that?  Some of them say it was because they felt uncomfortable in their own bodies.  One of them said she was told that if she didn't transition she was likely to be unhappy and develop mental health problems and commit suicide.  Some people were taught if they're not transgender they're privileged bad oppressors.  Some get lots of love and appreciation on social media if they say they are planning to transition.  Some were depressed and thought that if they transition they will become their true selves and become happy.  Some people who transition are attracted to a person of the same sex and think transitioning will make their life easier.  Some of them were ashamed of being boylike or girllike and thought if they transitioned they would no longer have something to be ashamed of.  Many of the girls who transition because their friends are doing it.  That is called "social contagion".  Some people transition because they think they are the opposite sex trapped in the wrong body.  Some do it because they see it as a way of escaping a painful past or they think people of their sex are bad. Almost all do it because they think they will be happier if they do.  Some people who start transitioning are happier for a short time because they believe they are on the way to overcoming their problems.  A lot fewer were happy in the long term. 

Grace, the girl who speaks in the video below had a mastectomy in order to become a boy.  Mastectomy means having breasts removed.  That used to be done if a woman had cancer in both breasts.  In her case it was done because she believed she would be happy if she became a boy.

Grace believed she'd be happy if she transitioned to a boy because she saw people acting so happy and excited about transitioning on the internet.  Other people have said they got a lot of encouragement on social media when they mentioned thoughts of transitioning. 

Kayla Lovdahl was convinced by trans-identifying influencers online that she was trans.  Her parents were told “that she represented a high-risk of suicide unless she transitioned.”  Three doctors “performed a double mastectomy within six months at age 13.”  She sued.  The complaint of her lawsuit states:

Defendants assumed that Kayla, a twelve-year-old emotionally troubled girl, knew best what she needed to improve her mental health and figuratively handed her the prescription pad. There is no other area of medicine where doctors will surgically remove a perfectly healthy body part and intentionally induce a diseased state of the pituitary gland misfunction based simply on the young adolescent patient’s wishes. Defendants were horribly, and inexcusably wrong, as Kayla was not transgender and was not a person that any reasonable physician could ascertain would permanently maintain a transgender identity.

When she was 17, Lovdahl began detransitioning. She no longer “identifies” as a man, but because of the hormonal and surgical “treatments” she received, she “now has deep physical and emotional wounds and severe regrets.”

Who are these people who were acting happy and excited on social media?  Did the people who said they transitioned really transition?  Were those who transitioned really happy after transitioning?  Who are the people who encourage others to transition?  Are they kind people who just want to help others or is their a more sinister selfish motive?  People on social media are not always who they seem to be.  There is a lesson on this site that explores this question of who they are and what their motives are.

Cat Catlinson was 26 years old when she started taking testosterone.  She is lucky she didn't start till she was 26 and didn't take it for long.  She was scheduled for a double mastectomy but cancelled the surgery.  Even so taking testosterone has had a permanent effect on her voice. 

Why did she take testosterone?  Here is her explanation.

“When I was talking to the doctor at Planned Parenthood, it was so easy for me to be like… ‘Yeah, I’ve struggled with an eating disorder, but that’s really gender dysphoria. I struggled with depression and anxiety, but of course it’s just because I was really trans this whole time. It was really my gender dysphoria that is the root issue and same thing with alcoholism and everything else.’ So essentially, what that does is it causes this superficial treatment process that is really just addressing the physical body and its body modification basically. You’re trying to use body modification to treat a mental illness.”

Cat had an eating disorder and believed she had it because she was a different gender.  It's not that long ago that therapists explained eating disorders as being a result of suppressed memories of childhood abuse.  Now the latest fad may be blaming it on being the wrong gender in the wrong body. 

Cat was also told that she would be likely to commit suicide if she didn't transition.

Karen Horney was a German psychologist who coined the term "the tyranny of the should.  She wrote that people sometimes have unrealistic expectations of themselves.  For example: they might believe that they should get better grades, or do better in athletics, or be better at a game, or sports or be better looking.  When people don't meet those expectations they might start criticizing themselves. 

 Another psychologist named Albert Ellis, wrote about the “musts” in our lives that create demands on ourselves and others and often only serve as a source of anxiety, guilt, shame, depression, self-hatred, and anger. We put ourselves down when we fail to live up to our shoulds, and we get angry with others when they don’t live up to our shoulds.

Cat says she felt uncomfortable being a woman.  What Cat really may have felt uncomfortable with is trying to fit a stereotype of how she believed a woman should behave.  After stopping testosterone she has made it her mission to teach people what she learned from her experience.  She basically learned that she didn't have to be anything and that she already was a woman.  She learned that she didn't have to fit a stereotype.  She now wants to teach what she learned to others.  She said:

“Whoever you are, in the body that you have, you can be whoever you are and do whatever you want to do in the world. I don’t think that people should have to be a man or a woman or non-binary to be able to express themself or do what they want to do. Part of my mission is breaking down these stereotypes and forging our own paths in the world, rather than just conforming to stereotypes.”

Maybe a little counseling about the tyranny of the should might have solved her problems and helped her love herself the way she was.  Instead she thought testosterone would solve her problems.  Testosterone just made things worse.

You can watch a video of her testimony below.

Kobe was a boy who had a lot in common with girls and so took puberty and hormone blocks to become a girl.  He even had surgery.  He then transitioned back.  He wishes someone had told him it was OK to be a boy with feminine qualities and that he didn't have to transition.  He talks about his experience in the video below.  One thing parents are told is that their child is likely to commit suicide if they don't transition.  Even children are told that they might commit suicide if they don't transition.  Kobe was told to say that he was considering suicide so that he could get free medical treatment to transition.  It makes one wonder how many other people say they are considering suicide in order to get free hormone treatments and free surgery.  Kobe says that transitioning is so awful that he can understand why so many people commit suicide after transitioning.  Parents who help their children transition in order to avoid their committing suicide don't realize that they are actually increasing the chance of their children committing suicide.

Kobe talks about how he talked to people who the scientists said one thing and they say something completely different.  He also says that those scientists who say transitioning helped kids be happier look at the short term but don't look at the long term.  There is a lesson here about scientists, don't believe everything you are told that the scientists say is true.  Scientists are people to, some have agendas, they all make mistakes and they are not always honest.

The people promoting trans surgery say that without it people will commit suicide.  Dr. Miriam Grossman points out that in the video below that countries that have stopped surgery for medical transitioning have not had an increase in suicides. 

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Why Are so Many Children and Teenagers Taking Puberty Blockers and Hormones?

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