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Use of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria: a momentous step in the dark
  1. Christopher Richards1,
  2. Julie Maxwell2,
  3. Noel McCune3
  1. 1 Department of Paediatrics, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  2. 2 Child Health Services, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Winchester, UK
  3. 3 Retired, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Portadown, Northern Ireland, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Christopher Richards, Department of Paediatrics, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP, UK; chris.richards{at}nuth.nhs.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-315881

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    We write with three areas of concern about the increasing use of puberty-blocking medication for gender dysphoria (GD) referred to in your recent leading article.1

    First, their use leaves a young person in developmental limbo without the benefit of pubertal hormones or secondary sexual characteristics, which would tend to consolidate gender identity. Butler provides evidence that intervention with a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogue (GnRHa) promotes a continued desire to identify with the non-birth sex—over 90% of young people …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors CR wrote the initial draft which was addended to and amended by the other authors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No additional unpublished data.

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