Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender individuals under the age of 18 will be the subject of arguments before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
At least 26 states have passed legislation limiting or outlawing this type of care for children, and the majority of those states are being sued.
The top court in the country will be considering whether Tennessee’s law violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, which states that persons in comparable situations must be treated equally under the law. Both parties assert that their actions are intended to keep children safe.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and other medical organizations endorse gender-affirming care. Here is an overview of what is usually involved:
First, there is an evaluation and diagnosis.
Clinics that offer gender-affirming care are frequently recommended for young people who consistently identify as a gender other than the sex they were assigned at birth.
The first step in this type of care is an assessment, which may involve a pediatrician and a mental health professional who determines the level of suffering, if any, the young person is going through.
provided a person’s distress is persistent and substantial, they may be diagnosed with gender dysphoria provided they fit certain criteria.
Some young individuals and their families may choose to test a new name, pronouns, hairdo, or outfit as part of a social transition. Experts concur that it is advantageous to let kids express their gender in a way that is consistent with who they are.
Chicago resident Chazzie Grosshandler, 18, claims that she told her parents she was a girl at the age of nine, not merely a boy who enjoyed girlie things. Two years later, she began receiving care.
When I told my parents that I was a girl and that I had felt this way for a long time, they welcomed me, and that was the first time I ever received gender-affirming care, she added. When people hear the word care, they often assume it must mean something medical, which I believe causes a lot of confusion. In actuality, though, it’s not only medical. It’s acceptance and love.
The next step could be puberty blockers.
Additional therapies, such puberty blockers, may be made available to a subset of youth in order to alleviate their discomfort and provide them with time to consider their gender identification.
GnRH agonists are medications that prevent the release of important hormones involved in sexual maturation. Precocious puberty, a rare medical disorder that causes puberty to start abnormally early, has been treated with them for decades.
When a young person exhibits early signs of puberty, such as breast or testicular expansion, the medication begins. For individuals who were assigned female at birth, this usually happens between the ages of 8 and 13, and for those who were assigned male at birth, it usually happens a year or two later.
The medications can be administered as arm implants that last for a year or two, or as injections every few months. Puberty and sexual development return as soon as the medicines are stopped, making many of the effects reversible. Although no study has found a higher risk of bone fractures, researchers are investigating how puberty blockers affect bone formation.
Puberty blockers can be used for a number of years by young people.
Hormones may be used by certain transgender youth.
Trans teenagers experience puberty with or without hormone therapy following puberty blockers.
To get their body to more closely resemble their gender identification, some people can decide to take hormone supplements. They take synthetic forms of the hormones that promote sexual development during puberty, either testosterone or estrogen. There are two forms of estrogen: tablets and skin patches. There are three forms of testosterone: gels, implants, and injections.
According to guidelines, these should begin when teenagers are old enough to make wise medical decisions. For the rest of their lives, many transgender people take the hormones.
Some physical changes persist even after stopping the medicine. In general, testosterone causes the Adam’s apple to form, facial hair to grow, and a permanent lowering of the voice. Breast development may be permanent as a result of estrogen.
Studies on transgender persons’ long-term hormone use have identified some health hazards, such as a slight risk of blood clots with estrogen and adverse cholesterol changes with testosterone.
Rarely is surgery performed.
Hormone therapy is much more common than gender-affirming surgery for transgender teenagers. Breast reduction surgery is nearly typically performed on older transgender males when it is performed on transgender youngsters.
Nevertheless, that kind of operation is really uncommon. Surprisingly, males who are not transgender are the ones who have breast reduction the most often among children. This is for gynecomastia, which is defined as having more breast tissue than normal.
According to a study that examined millions of insurance claims from 2019, 151 breast reductions were done on minors in the United States. 97% of them were not transgender.
Hormones and overall health
According to research, transgender youth are more likely to experience stress, sadness, and suicidal ideation. Although certain details are still unknown, some research indicates that treating gender dysphoria can enhance young people’s wellbeing.
In one study, 315 transgender youth who got hormone therapy were tested and monitored for two years. For individuals born with a female birth designation, life satisfaction rose and symptoms of worry and depression decreased, but not for those born with a male birth designation. The kids assigned a male gender at birth may be more susceptible to stress due to their differences from the majority of their peers, the researchers hypothesized.
Two participants in the same study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year, committed suicide: one six months later, and the other a year later.
There are ongoing longer-term research on the results of therapy.
___
The Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute provides support to the Associated Press Health and Science Department. All content is entirely the AP’s responsibility.
The Associated Press, 2024. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. It is prohibited to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute this content without authorization.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!