So. As a heads up the number of kids who actually have surgery before 19 are very tiny. The only surgeries available to people over 16 but under 18 are non-destructive breast reductions. That’s also available to cis girls without issue. Breast augmenting is off the table because the breasts are still developing and outcomes are usually reduced in quality so that’s not a thing. Bottom surgery is usually the last thing and the average age for that is in people’s early 20’s and not all trans people opt for it because there are tradeoffs and some people are okay without. The standout here is usually hormones and I think there’s somr things people really don’t understand about this process.
Mostly it’s three things
They don’t understand how actually stable trans identity is and how unified the psychological markers are.
They think access is way simpler and directed by the child than it is
They aren’t aware of the actual monetary and physical cost of NOT using Horomone. Not talking psychological. Those are definitely a huge thing too but most people have been introduced to those concepts.
On the first count : Trans people aren’t subtle. There’s specific markers of behaviour , the way they conceptualize specific things is actually really different from cis people. If you are talking about gender theory it gets complicated because they are dealing with something that is incredibly different under the hood. Identify is also very stable. It is vanishingly rare to find a kid who doesn’t keep identifing as trans if they are past the one year mark. Usually the only changes you see to the co-hort is them identifing as a different type of transness between non-binary or binary trans and oftentimes the things they physically require don’t change.
On the second. It’s a panel of experts. No kid is making this decision alone. All legal guardians need to sign on and then you need to have a panel agree it’s the best long term choice. Here’s what that looks like
Pediatric Doctor - Makes sure they are at the stage of puberty and the general health is at a point where blockers and maybe later hormones are a good fit.
Social Services Worker - Makes sure there isn’t something hinky with the home environment and the family is in a position to make an informed decision .
Trans specialized Psychology - Makes sure the identity has been stable and trial run at a social level and that all the markers of a trans patient make the child a risk if they don’t physically transition. They really try to hold off as long as they can.
Endocrinologist - A specialist on horomones. Assesses the patient routinely to make sure there’s not any underlying issues. If a trans kid reacts bad to blockers or later Horomones then it stops.
So for the last part.
Trans adults who don’t go through horomones during the stage of their development end up needing more surgeries and more costly and invasive surgeries than those who were allowed to go through the process of developing through hormonal changes. As an example You don’t need breast reductions if you never develop that tissue in the first place. If you are on blockers and then later testosterone you develop as a male and you still have all the internal bits that if you change your mind later you can swap to estrogen and have perfectly female phenotypic breasts. If you are forced to develop breasts and then remove them later you remove all the inside features and there’s not really any takebacksies.
A lot of trans development looks like this. There are a lot of details and the issues when presented to the public don’t give all the information for the public to make a well informed opinion on trans health. It really is kind of a specialist medicine .
So. As a heads up the number of kids who actually have surgery before 19 are very tiny. The only surgeries available to people over 16 but under 18 are non-destructive breast reductions. That’s also available to cis girls without issue. Breast augmenting is off the table because the breasts are still developing and outcomes are usually reduced in quality so that’s not a thing. Bottom surgery is usually the last thing and the average age for that is in people’s early 20’s and not all trans people opt for it because there are tradeoffs and some people are okay without. The standout here is usually hormones and I think there’s somr things people really don’t understand about this process.
Mostly it’s three things
They don’t understand how actually stable trans identity is and how unified the psychological markers are.
They think access is way simpler and directed by the child than it is
They aren’t aware of the actual monetary and physical cost of NOT using Horomone. Not talking psychological. Those are definitely a huge thing too but most people have been introduced to those concepts.
On the first count : Trans people aren’t subtle. There’s specific markers of behaviour , the way they conceptualize specific things is actually really different from cis people. If you are talking about gender theory it gets complicated because they are dealing with something that is incredibly different under the hood. Identify is also very stable. It is vanishingly rare to find a kid who doesn’t keep identifing as trans if they are past the one year mark. Usually the only changes you see to the co-hort is them identifing as a different type of transness between non-binary or binary trans and oftentimes the things they physically require don’t change.
On the second. It’s a panel of experts. No kid is making this decision alone. All legal guardians need to sign on and then you need to have a panel agree it’s the best long term choice. Here’s what that looks like
Pediatric Doctor - Makes sure they are at the stage of puberty and the general health is at a point where blockers and maybe later hormones are a good fit.
Social Services Worker - Makes sure there isn’t something hinky with the home environment and the family is in a position to make an informed decision .
Trans specialized Psychology - Makes sure the identity has been stable and trial run at a social level and that all the markers of a trans patient make the child a risk if they don’t physically transition. They really try to hold off as long as they can.
Endocrinologist - A specialist on horomones. Assesses the patient routinely to make sure there’s not any underlying issues. If a trans kid reacts bad to blockers or later Horomones then it stops.
So for the last part.
Trans adults who don’t go through horomones during the stage of their development end up needing more surgeries and more costly and invasive surgeries than those who were allowed to go through the process of developing through hormonal changes. As an example You don’t need breast reductions if you never develop that tissue in the first place. If you are on blockers and then later testosterone you develop as a male and you still have all the internal bits that if you change your mind later you can swap to estrogen and have perfectly female phenotypic breasts. If you are forced to develop breasts and then remove them later you remove all the inside features and there’s not really any takebacksies.
A lot of trans development looks like this. There are a lot of details and the issues when presented to the public don’t give all the information for the public to make a well informed opinion on trans health. It really is kind of a specialist medicine .
deleted by creator
Thank you, excellent answer. I learned stuff.