It’s just such an extreme, radical step to take. It’s bleeding obvious to me that the best and kindest way to handle gender dysphoria — for anyone, but especially kids — is to help them <become> comfortable in their body without resorting to cutting off major pieces of it.
It’s just such an extreme, radical step to take. It’s bleeding obvious to me that the best and kindest way to handle gender dysphoria — for anyone, but especially kids — is to help them <become> comfortable in their body without resorting to cutting off major pieces of it.
That certainly is an obvious thing to think of. What technique would you recommend for helping kids with gender dysphoria become comfortable in their bodies, and how much evidence is there that it works?
Watchful waiting (the “treatment” before affirmation was all the rage). About 90% of kids grew out of it and, usually, going through puberty was the cure. That’s the point at which kids were happy to be male or female ( and in many cases realized “hey I don’t wish I was a boy/girl, I’m just lesbian/gay.”)
Because they are now middle-agers —and there are so many of them (easily googlable) — who talk about how grateful they are not to be young today, because they would have been transed, medically harmed, and their sexual function destroyed. Instead, they are happy, intact adults living life — which is more than can be said for, say, Jazz Jennings (for whom I have enormous sympathy). If anyone’s experience serves as a cautionary tale of everything that goes wrong by transing children, it’s poor Jazz’s.
Also, yes, a few middle-agers are transitioning today, but it’s nothing like the huge (hopefully soon playing out and waning) phenomenon we see in teens.
But whether you believe anyone grows out of their gender-related beliefs or not, here’s a more fundamental issue:
The 21st century Western notion of “being trans” is simply a cultural creation. It’s something we quite literally made up. We also made up the (harmful) “treatments” for it. If you’re interested in this topic I invite you to read https://bprice.substack.com/p/trans-is-something-we-made-up
Interesting. Do those other made-up cultural phenomena you mentioned there, like windigo and susto, also have observable biological markers and correlations with prenatal hormone exposure? Or is that unique to the made-up cultural phenomenon known as "being trans"?
I see you didn’t fully read the article then, so it’s impossible to engage fruitfully: what is underlying windigo? A real thing, anxiety. What is underlying “being trans” (as well as other cultures’ extremely varied expressions of similar phenomena?)? Gender nonconformity, a real thing, which may indeed across cultures and across times and places have underlying biological causes, be related to hormones etc.
What is unique and made up is not gender nonconformity (there are always, say, some extremely feminine men in each culture). What is made up is our wrong body narrative and set of “treatments” and beliefs which other cultures (including cultures with better outcomes for their GNC people) do not share.
Homosexuality has biomarkers; gender dysphoria not so much. And yes, windigo would have indistinguishable biomarkers from generalized anxiety (e.g. elevated cortisol)
Women with CAIS are significantly more likely to report viewing themselves as a gender other than female, score especially low on assessments of female gender identity, and score especially high on assessments of male gender identity, independent of their sexual orientation. Contrast this to women with MRKHS, another intersex condition, who report (and are assessed with) a female gender identity at typical rates, despite having more atypical physical sexual development. [1]
Trans women show a female-typical pattern of activation in the hypothalamus when smelling steroids that are known to have a sex-linked effect on the hypothalamus, independent of sexual orientation. [2]
Trans women also show female-typical levels of gray matter volume in specific regions of the brain, independent of sexual orientation. [3]
Yes. Basically she’s doing what people did before mindless (and profitable) “affirmation and transition.” She does therapy with these kids to see what is at the root of their body-loathing. She’s amazing. I admire her enormously for doing this at a time when that’s considered by many to be “transphobic.”
Ironically she’s doing more to help gender-questioning kids than all the “gender clinics” put together.
It’s just such an extreme, radical step to take. It’s bleeding obvious to me that the best and kindest way to handle gender dysphoria — for anyone, but especially kids — is to help them <become> comfortable in their body without resorting to cutting off major pieces of it.
If only common sense were common. . ..
That certainly is an obvious thing to think of. What technique would you recommend for helping kids with gender dysphoria become comfortable in their bodies, and how much evidence is there that it works?
Watchful waiting (the “treatment” before affirmation was all the rage). About 90% of kids grew out of it and, usually, going through puberty was the cure. That’s the point at which kids were happy to be male or female ( and in many cases realized “hey I don’t wish I was a boy/girl, I’m just lesbian/gay.”)
Considering that many people transition in their 30s, 40s, or later, how can we be sure that those kids *actually* grew out of it?
Because they are now middle-agers —and there are so many of them (easily googlable) — who talk about how grateful they are not to be young today, because they would have been transed, medically harmed, and their sexual function destroyed. Instead, they are happy, intact adults living life — which is more than can be said for, say, Jazz Jennings (for whom I have enormous sympathy). If anyone’s experience serves as a cautionary tale of everything that goes wrong by transing children, it’s poor Jazz’s.
Also, yes, a few middle-agers are transitioning today, but it’s nothing like the huge (hopefully soon playing out and waning) phenomenon we see in teens.
But whether you believe anyone grows out of their gender-related beliefs or not, here’s a more fundamental issue:
The 21st century Western notion of “being trans” is simply a cultural creation. It’s something we quite literally made up. We also made up the (harmful) “treatments” for it. If you’re interested in this topic I invite you to read https://bprice.substack.com/p/trans-is-something-we-made-up
Interesting. Do those other made-up cultural phenomena you mentioned there, like windigo and susto, also have observable biological markers and correlations with prenatal hormone exposure? Or is that unique to the made-up cultural phenomenon known as "being trans"?
I see you didn’t fully read the article then, so it’s impossible to engage fruitfully: what is underlying windigo? A real thing, anxiety. What is underlying “being trans” (as well as other cultures’ extremely varied expressions of similar phenomena?)? Gender nonconformity, a real thing, which may indeed across cultures and across times and places have underlying biological causes, be related to hormones etc.
What is unique and made up is not gender nonconformity (there are always, say, some extremely feminine men in each culture). What is made up is our wrong body narrative and set of “treatments” and beliefs which other cultures (including cultures with better outcomes for their GNC people) do not share.
Homosexuality has biomarkers; gender dysphoria not so much. And yes, windigo would have indistinguishable biomarkers from generalized anxiety (e.g. elevated cortisol)
Gender identity does indeed have biomarkers.
Women with CAIS are significantly more likely to report viewing themselves as a gender other than female, score especially low on assessments of female gender identity, and score especially high on assessments of male gender identity, independent of their sexual orientation. Contrast this to women with MRKHS, another intersex condition, who report (and are assessed with) a female gender identity at typical rates, despite having more atypical physical sexual development. [1]
Trans women show a female-typical pattern of activation in the hypothalamus when smelling steroids that are known to have a sex-linked effect on the hypothalamus, independent of sexual orientation. [2]
Trans women also show female-typical levels of gray matter volume in specific regions of the brain, independent of sexual orientation. [3]
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886909004620
[2] https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/18/8/1900/285954
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053811909003176
My impression is that those are a different population, but you raise a good point.
Go over to the Gender: A Wider Lens podcast for much more about this. Sasha Ayad (one of the podcasters) does Gender Exploratory Therapy.
Yes. Basically she’s doing what people did before mindless (and profitable) “affirmation and transition.” She does therapy with these kids to see what is at the root of their body-loathing. She’s amazing. I admire her enormously for doing this at a time when that’s considered by many to be “transphobic.”
Ironically she’s doing more to help gender-questioning kids than all the “gender clinics” put together.