‘We Were Wrong’: Pioneer In Child Gender Dysphoria Treatment Says Trans Medical Industry Is Harming Kids

[SackMan518]

Wow, a professional who has worked in this field since the 70s finally has a "Come to Jesus" moment and affirms what many of us here have been saying regarding how harmful this is to the youth. The important parts are bolded by me and I consider this to be the final word on the subject.

‘We Were Wrong’: Pioneer In Child Gender Dysphoria Treatment Says Trans Medical Industry Is Harming Kids

 

Dr. Susan Bradley, a Canadian psychiatrist and pioneer in child gender dysphoria treatment, came out against the popular model of affirming children’s transgender identities and putting them on puberty blockers — a practice she was once involved in — in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Bradley started a pediatric gender clinic in 1975 aimed at treating children with gender dysphoria — a deep sense of discomfort with one’s body and biological sex — in which she offered a therapy-focused approach; most patients outgrew their feelings of being transgender over time, she told the DCNF. Around 2000, the clinic began prescribing puberty blockers to gender-dysphoric children as a way to alleviate their distress, a model which has since become widely adopted by medical establishments around the world, including in the U.S.

Bradley, who is now in her early eighties, expressed regret that the clinic had participated in the administration of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria, which she now believes can cement a child’s sense of confusion out of which they would likely otherwise grow. She also expressed concern about the drugs’ side effects.

“We were wrong,” she said. “They’re not as reversible as we always thought, and they have longer term effects on kids’ growth and development, including making them sterile and quite a number of things affecting their bone growth.” 

While most children who experienced gender dysphoria typically grew out of it and came to accept their bodies and gender prior to the widespread implementation of the “gender affirmation” approach, numerous doctors expressed concerns that puberty blockers made children’s temporary gender confusion permanent by solidifying their sense of actually being the opposite sex, according to The New York Times. The drugs also prevent the surge in bone density that would normally occur during puberty, with some patients experiencing lifelong bone issues. The FDA also identified six cases where there was a “plausible” link between GnRH agonists and a condition called pseudotumor cerebri, which is caused by elevated fluid pressure in the brain.

Bradley told the DCNF her opinions on puberty blockers evolved over time.

“We thought that it was relatively safe, and endocrinologists said they’re reversible, and that we didn’t have to worry about it. I had this skepticism in the back of my mind all the time that maybe we were actually colluding and not helping them. And I think that’s proven correct in that, once these kids get started at any age on puberty blockers, nearly all of them continue to want to go to cross sex hormones,” Bradley said.

Bradley opened the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry Child Youth and Family Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) in 1975, and she went on to become the head of Child Psychiatry at the Hospital for Sick Children and the psychiatrist-in-chief and head of the Division of Child Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

“An opinion from someone like Dr. Bradley has enormous potential to influence debate because she is what Cass Sunstein has called a ‘surprising validator,'” Joseph Burgo, psychotherapist and vice director of Genspect, told the DCNF. “It’s human nature to dismiss even well-reasoned arguments and credible evidence from those who are readily identified as on the other side, as ‘them’ — say, Republicans, or well-known ‘transphobes.’ But Dr. Bradley is a pioneer in the field and politically unaligned.”

“She does not argue that puberty blockers are never appropriate. Instead, she urges a cautious exploratory approach to gender distress based upon her decades of experience,” Burgo said. “When a professional who might have been expected to align with one side (affirmative care) issues a nuanced opinion and urges caution, it can help members of the public not to takes side against her, to polarize and dismiss her opinions, but instead to open their minds to alternative points of view. Surprising validators like Dr. Bradley can soften divisions and promote dialog even more than well-balanced presentations with arguments from both sides can do.”

Bradley believes transitioning is beneficial for some adults and says some patients consider it the best thing they’ve ever done for themselves, but that the metrics of success, even in terms of patient satisfaction, are complicated. One of her patients transitioned from female to male, married a woman who had been a childhood friend and seemed happy and satisfied, but later in life pursued a very costly phalloplasty surgery; despite appearing “very masculine,” the patient was never fully satisfied and was always pursuing further bodily improvements, according to Bradley.

Another patient Bradley worked with transitioned from male to female but eventually told the psychiatrist he was no longer trans and was in a relationship with another man. This made Bradley question if transitioning was really just about seeking acceptance for some patients.

“It made me realize that what we’re really talking about is acceptance that they need; we all need somebody who loves us,” Bradley said. “And so it’s very complicated. There are people who make this work. But there are an awful lot of people who end up feeling that this hasn’t solved their problems with who they are and what they are … the long and short of it is that the decision was made at a time when these kids were just too young to really know how they were going to make this work. And that’s not fair.”

Bradley chaired the Subcommittee on Gender Dysphoria for the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the official manual of the American Psychiatric Association, which is used for classifying and diagnosing mental disorders. She led eight other doctors in determining diagnostic guidelines for gender identity disorders.

She also produced research, along with other clinic doctors, showing that 87.8% of boys referred to their clinic for gender identity issues eventually “desisted,” meaning they stopped believing they were actually girls and came to terms with their sex.

Bradley came to believe that most child patients who identified as transgender were actually on the autism spectrum or suffering from borderline personality disorder, which she believes should be classified as part of the autism spectrum. Autistic adolescents are particularly prone to obsessive thinking and body image issues, and they struggle to change their minds once convinced something is true, all of which make them more vulnerable to being convinced they are actually the opposite sex and should seek medical interventions such as puberty blockers or hormones.

“You have to put yourself in the place of a 12 year old or a 13 year old, who is thinking, ‘This is my way to get normal,'” Bradley said. “These kids are not faring well with the current affirmative approach. I don’t know that any kids actually could, given the capacity of a 10 or 12, or even 14 or 15 year old to understand the complexity of the decision that they’re making on their long term sexual and life function. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Bradley retired around 2012, and the clinic shut down several years later amid intense pressure from transgender activists who believed that the clinic, which did not automatically affirm children’s gender identity or transgender status, was transphobic.

Skepticism of puberty blockers has grown in recent years amid high-profile scandals involving pediatric gender clinics prescribing blockers to halt the healthy puberty of children as young as 10 with allegedly inadequate psychological screening. Stella O’Malley, psychotherapist and founder of Genspect, an organization that is critical of childhood gender transitions, voiced concerns about the intervention in a previous interview with the DCNF.

“Blocking the sexual development of children is a highly authoritarian intervention. Children are asexual, and so they can’t understand the impact of impaired sexual functioning, she said. “We are roughly 10 years into this large-scale experiment and already we have reports on issues with cognitive development, bone mineral density, and fertility. All the up-to-date evidence shows that puberty blockers are neither safe nor reversible.”

Advocates for medical gender transitions for children argue that puberty blockers can diminish the distress a gender dysphoric child experiences as a result of puberty and can reduce the need for later surgeries or hormonal interventions by preventing the acquisition of some traits associated with their biological sex, such as a deep voice in a male patient.

“Anxiety drains away,” Dr. Norman Spack, a leader in the push for puberty blocker use in gender dysphoric patients, told The New York Times. “You can see these kids being so relieved.”

The Center for Addiction and Mental Health, formerly the Clarke Institute, did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

 

[ICRockets2]

2 hours ago, SackMan518 said:

 

Bradley retired around 2012, and the clinic shut down several years later amid intense pressure from transgender activists who believed that the clinic, which did not automatically affirm children’s gender identity or transgender status, was transphobic.

 

Oh, interesting.  I wonder why this part didn't get bolded?

Seems like if you have a doctor you're claiming is a pioneer in gender-affirming care and that doctor didn't use the affirmative care model, that would be EXTREMELY relevant information.  

 

[HipKat]

4 hours ago, ICRockets2 said:

Oh, interesting.  I wonder why this part didn't get bolded?

Seems like if you have a doctor you're claiming is a pioneer in gender-affirming care and that doctor didn't use the affirmative care model, that would be EXTREMELY relevant information.  

 

Because a bunch of uppity Trannys in dresses with Adam's Apples created so much of a ruckus threw hissy-fits.

[ICRockets2]

4 minutes ago, HipKat said:

Because a bunch of uppity Trannys in dresses with Adam's Apples created so much of a ruckus threw hissy-fits.

Incoherent. 

Breathe first, then try again.

[RichJ]

 

 

https://segm.org/England-ends-gender-affirming-care#:~:text=The NHS has eliminated the,care in children's hospital settings.

[RichJ]

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2022/december/sweden-pulls-back-from-gender-affirming-care-on-minors-good-psychosocial-care-is-fundamental

[HipKat]

1 hour ago, ICRockets2 said:

Incoherent. 

Breathe first, then try again.

Is this better?

[SackMan518]

6 hours ago, ICRockets2 said:

Oh, interesting.  I wonder why this part didn't get bolded?

Seems like if you have a doctor you're claiming is a pioneer in gender-affirming care and that doctor didn't use the affirmative care model, that would be EXTREMELY relevant information.  

 

You know, maybe, just maybe, they didn't affirm it at the outset because, you know, they might use the scientific method and pursue testing to see if they had a legitimate case? Your logic is so irrational that by using your standard if I go into my doctor and tell him I have cancer he just takes my word and prescribes a regimen of chemotherapy. Seriously, you've gotta be the dumbest poster on here with a façade of intellectualism that doesn't actually exist once you peek inside. I suggest you make better use of your life in the real world instead of perpetuating these losing and illogical battles you wage on here mainly around the LGBTQ agenda.

[ICRockets2]

1 hour ago, SackMan518 said:

You know, maybe, just maybe, they didn't affirm it at the outset because, you know, they might use the scientific method and pursue testing to see if they had a legitimate case? Your logic is so irrational that by using your standard if I go into my doctor and tell him I have cancer he just takes my word and prescribes a regimen of chemotherapy. Seriously, you've gotta be the dumbest poster on here with a façade of intellectualism that doesn't actually exist once you peek inside. I suggest you make better use of your life in the real world instead of perpetuating these losing and illogical battles you wage on here mainly around the LGBTQ agenda.

The reason you affirm at the outset is because if you don't the patient is probably going to stop coming to you. 

Imagine you're depressed, and you go to see a therapist.  You tell them you're depressed.  They say "no you're not".  Are you going to have ANY faith in that therapist treating you effectively?  Of course not.  So you're not going to go back.  

That's the point of the affirmative care model.  It is considered best practices for precisely this reason.  If you start from a position of skepticism of your patient's identity, they're going to start from a position of skepticism of your competency.  

[SackMan518]

11 minutes ago, ICRockets2 said:

The reason you affirm at the outset is because if you don't the patient is probably going to stop coming to you. 

Imagine you're depressed, and you go to see a therapist.  You tell them you're depressed.  They say "no you're not".  Are you going to have ANY faith in that therapist treating you effectively?  Of course not.  So you're not going to go back.  

That's the point of the affirmative care model.  It is considered best practices for precisely this reason.  If you start from a position of skepticism of your patient's identity, they're going to start from a position of skepticism of your competency.  

You're dumb as shit. It says right in the article that many of the cases were not bona fide gender dysphoria or transsexualism. Of course no rational psychologist is going to give you a diagnosis at the beginning without reviewing the candidate's background and actually talking to them. To do so would be malpractice and especially since a lot of the cited cases grew out of it and/or regretted the transition after finding that there were other things going with them. Seriously dude, use some of that gray matter in your cerebral cortex and think these things through before spewing your inane chatter on here.

[LiterateStylish]

Not surprising.

Lots of whistleblowers coming out.

A board member of the National Trans Associaton and a trans person himself said it’s getting out of hand.

[ICRockets2]

2 hours ago, SackMan518 said:

You're dumb as shit. It says right in the article that many of the cases were not bona fide gender dysphoria or transsexualism. 

No it didn't.  It said many did not go on to transition, or later detransitioned.  It didn't say that decision was because they were not actually trans.  Oftentimes people who detransition do so because of a lack of support and affirmation.  If the clinic treating them was not using the affirmative care model, it would make sense that they felt this way and if I were a local activist I'd have said so too.

[ICRockets2]

58 minutes ago, LiterateStylish said:

a trans person himself said it’s getting out of hand.

Whoa!  That must mean he's right, right?  Because he said it?  

And of course it wouldn't matter if other trans people said the opposite, because this one said the thing you like!  And that means it's right, you know?!?

[ICRockets2]

 

[LiterateStylish]

14 hours ago, ICRockets2 said:

Whoa!  That must mean he's right, right?  Because he said it?  

If you whittle down my entire post into a small segment, sure.

[jc856]

21 hours ago, HipKat said:

Because a bunch of uppity Trannys in dresses with Adam's Apples created so much of a ruckus threw hissy-fits.

You can get a tracheal shave if you are afraid of your Adam’s apple giving you away.

 

[HipKat]

5 hours ago, LiterateStylish said:

If you whittle down my entire post into a small segment, sure.

That's what he does.