Soloist wrote: ↑Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:17 amI am not forbidding this in the slightest. What you seem insistent on refusing to admit is that the studies (to carry the vaccine analogy) are removing any negative outcomes that make these people advocate against the vaccine.
You want people to be ignorant of consequences? Or would you rather they actually know real data that doesn’t hide the truth before they choose.
This is about hiding painful facts from vulnerable people.
You claim that painful facts are being hid from vulnerable people. I see zero evidence that this is happening. There are really four separate issues at play when we are talking about success or failure, or "the facts". Any one of which can affect the success or failure of these procedures.
1. Are these procedures medically safe. What are the possible side effects and medical complications? I've heard things like bone density. But generally people don't die from that. Long-term use of retinoids for acne treatment can also affect bone density. And for any surgery there are risks of infections and complications. Are transgender patients (and their parents if they are minors) being fully informed of the medical risks? I see no evidence that they are not. If you have evidence that the medical risks are being hidden that would be malpractice for any type of medical care, not just transgender care.
2. Are these medical procedures effective at achieving the desired physical results? Do patents have an informed and realistic sense of what the end result is going to be? How they will look and feel when it is complete? The medical science isn't magic. You aren't going to turn 6'4" 250 lb. linebackers into 5'2" 95 lb cheerleaders or vice versa. So do patients have a realistic and informed idea of where they are going and what the end result is going to be? That is the job of medical professionals to inform them in as much detail as possible so they can make an informed decision. Do you have evidence that this isn't happening?
3. Are these medical procedures going to address the psychological issues of gender dysphoria for patients? In other words, are they going to be happier or more at ease with their lives with medical intervention? Looks are not everything. They are, in fact, superficial. Pretty people can be just as unhappy as ugly people. And the vast majority of people don't look like Barbies and Kens. So are patients properly informed of this reality? That even with physical changes there is not magic bullet for happiness? That is an issue more for their therapists. Do you have evidence that this is not happening? And that patents are being given an unrealistic idea that medical interventions are going to magically make them happier or solve their problems?
4. And finally there is the issue of people who were not actually trans but for whatever psychological reason slipped through the cracks and went down this road. Or who ended up changing their minds. This is not at all a question of the success or failure of transgender medical treatment. It is a question about the success or failure of screening to make sure the patients are truly transgender and not suffering from some other psychological issue. Is this happening? Is the medical profession taking all steps to make sure they aren't treating the wrong people? From what I have read it seems that the answer is largely yes. The profession is going to a great deal of effort here. And the studies we have been talking about suggest that proper screening brings the numbers down. But there is also a weakest link element here. The story upstream about the 13 year old girl who is suing Kaiser Permanente? Apparently her mother engaged in "doctor shopping" and they bounced around until finally finding a doctor or therapist who would sign off. Is that a problem? Are there 10% or 5% or 1% of doctors and therapists out there who do not do enough diligent screening in these cases? Possibly. Maybe even likely. That is likely the case in every single area of medicine. If this pandemic has taught us anything it is that there are a LOT of quacks out there pushing unsound medicine. In my mind this is something medical boards and the profession needs to address. And also the legal system. If large numbers of teens are being inappropriately transitioned then we will likely see a tidal wave of malpractice lawsuits and there will be a LOT of very wealthy teens and their families out there getting big settlements. And the profession will quickly adjust course like it does in response to any other malpractice risk. In fact, the FOX news article cited upstream says that 85-90% of transgender teens are actually dissuaded from medical interventions. So it sounds like a lot of screening is actually happening.
All of your comments are focused entirely on #4. Which frankly has nothing to do with the success or failure of transgender medicine. It has to do with the success or failure of screening. If this problem is of the scale that you and other anti-trans activists claim then I suspect we will soon have prima facie evidence of this when hundreds or thousands of malpractice lawsuits start cropping up around the country. And if that doesn't happen. If it is just the rare case here and there that we can count on one or two hands then it sounds like more a case of a few bad apples within the medical system rather than any systematic problem.
Either way, let's not insult everyone's intelligence by pretending that this current national obsession with transgender medicine is actually about protecting kids. We let thousands of kids die horrible deaths all across the country every year. And tens of thousands more suffer from all kinds preventable diseases, disfiguring accidents, physical and psychological abuse, hunger and neglect, and so forth and no one blinks and eye or lifts a finger. In fact we as a society are deliberately and intentionally callus, Or we brush it off as questions of freedom, parental rights, medical autonomy and so forth.
