Transgender Minors Deserve Healthcare

TW: mention of suicidal ideation 

TLDR: Trans minors deserve gender-affirming health care as the precautions in place to make sure they have gender dysphoria are already strenuous, minors will get hormones and blockers illegally otherwise, it harms cis minors if banned, and it has been proven to improve their emotional well-being and social life to get gender-affirming health care. 

Transgender minors deserve gender-affirming healthcare (this includes therapy, hormone blockers, hormones, (and surgery for adults)) as getting to be able to get said healthcare is super hard. Many people point to de-transitioners when this is said. I'd like to say that if a de-transitioner says that "I was misdiagnosed", "the doctors didn't say the side effects of gender-affirming health care", "they didn't ask my legal guardians or me", or "They didn't make sure I had dysphoria", then either they're lying or they were a victim of medical malpractice because that's all malpractice. Malpractice is widespread, and if this happens to someone they should be directing their anger toward the negligent medical professionals, rather than the trans community. The genuine process of getting gender-affirming care for trans minors is as follows, but simplified:

 You come out, hopefully, they support you, then you socially transition, you go to a psychologist or therapist with your parents, and eventually get diagnosed with gender dysphoria, when you decide you want to go on hormones or blockers,  you have to go through many psychologists and doctors, have to wait. And wait. And WAIT. Often going through years of therapy, And then they'll have to make sure that yeah you need blockers or hormones, and then they’ll check if you’re physically good (for blockers you go on them when you have already started puberty, for hormones you cannot be younger than like 14-16 and usually your “og puberty” has to be done before you get on hormones if you aren’t on blockers before) then they'll ask your previous psychologists, and doctors, and all, ask your parents, and ask you if all say yes then you go on blockers or hormones. 

 Another reason trans minors need this is because it has been shown on many occasions that gender-affirming health care improves the well-being and social life of transgender folks, and these are long long-term studies with many different people.
one study tracked 55 transgender people from teen years to adult years, All took puberty blockers and hormones as teens. As adults, they got gender-affirming surgery, after their quality of life and happiness was similar to their cisgender peers. None regretting treatment. Many studies have seen similar findings In total, these studies found about 8,000 trans patients who had gender-affirming care, with only around 1% regretting their gender-affirming care. In another survey with 28,000 adults, around 2,000 detransitioned, 1 in 3 said it was due to family pressure, close to 1 in 3 said pressure from their communities, and about 11% said it was caused by their gender identity change.
 If someone stops taking puberty blockers, their body will pick up where it left off and proceed through puberty. Doctors have used puberty blockers for decades to treat children who start going through puberty too early. So these medications are hardly new. But recent bills would forbid doctors from prescribing them to transgender youth, despite their benefit. In one study, researchers analyzed a survey of more than 20,000 U.S. transgender adults. Nearly 17 percent had wanted puberty blockers while growing up. Only 2.5 percent got them. Adults who had access to the drugs were 70 percent less likely to have considered suicide. Older transgender teens start taking gender-affirming hormones, medical guidelines recommend this treatment start around the age of 14 to 16. Masculinizing hormone therapy involves taking testosterone. The hormone deepens someone’s voice and promotes facial hair to grow. It also suppresses menstruation and breast development. Research shows that hormone therapy reduces the risk of self-harm and improves body image among transgender teens. In one study of 47 young transgender teens, 21 expressed suicidal tendencies before hormone therapy. That number dropped to six after treatment. The study appeared in the September 2019 Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology. Another study surveyed 86 teens on hormone therapy. On average, these kids were happier with their bodies after treatment. Participants rated their body dissatisfaction on a scale from 0 (none) to 116 (most dissatisfied). Ratings fell from an average of 71 before treatment to 51 after roughly a year of treatment. When transgender minors don't have access to the health care they need they can turn to illegal and dangerous ways of getting what they need, getting them illegally often can harm people and cause you can overdose if you don't get your blood checked regularly. Banning this healthcare hurts cisgender children too, as blockers are used for helping children going through puberty too young, and hormones help late bloomers. 

Anyways thanks for coming to my ted talk that's my first blog ever LMFAO