Life Without Puberty

Many transgender
people have just one regret: not transitioning sooner.
That may soon be a thing of the past as a growing number of
trans kids turn to puberty-blocking hormones.

The Food and Drug
Administration has long approved hormone blockers for
nontransgender children experiencing early puberty. But a
growing number of U.S. physicians are legally
prescribing these blockers to trans youth at the onset
of puberty—an investigational off-label use. Doctors
argue that medical intervention at that point is safer
than letting trans children endure the wrong kind of
puberty or take medications without supervision.

Some transgender
minors delay puberty until adulthood; others begin
cross-sex hormones soon after starting hormone blockers
while minors. Though the treatment is reversible,
prescribing minors hormone blockers is clearly an
incendiary issue. Psychologist Kenneth Zucker believes that
forcing transsexualism is dangerous for children who simply
don’t fit normative gender roles. Other
practitioners advocate a different kind of
intervention: forcing normative gender roles on
gender-nonconforming children, e.g., making a little
girl, even if she identifies as a boy, wear dresses
and play house.