Writing in Public Discourse, endocrinologist Michael K. Laidlaw called attention to an October 29, 2019 statement by the Pediatric Endocrine Society on the use of puberty blockers on children.
The statement said, in part, that suppression of puberty once started “is a reversible treatment that decreases the distress of having the ‘wrong’ [sic] puberty.”
Laidlaw calls the statement “dangerous” and describes how many normal adolescent development processes—from skeletal to hormonal to sexual growth milestones—can all be disrupted by puberty blockers, and that there is an age at which it is normal to undergo these changes. Laidlaw asserts straightforwardly that, “Disruption of a temporal process of development cannot be reversed.”
Furthermore, Laidlaw observes that the “social transitioning” process is bound up with puberty reversal, and very few adolescents who begin taking puberty blockers will cease “transitioning”—whereas without such measures, many adolescents grow out of the desire to change their sex.
Laidlaw concludes: “The Pediatric Endocrine Society’s statement that puberty-suppressing agents are reversible is highly deceptive. […] I would challenge the Pediatric Endocrine Society to take the time to investigate the full scope of known and potential harms for using puberty-blocking agents to stop normal puberty. […] Not to do so is a dereliction of duty of the highest order.”
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