Thread by @SocDoneLeft

This is a blatant lie from @benshapiro. That evidence exists and it supports affirming trans teens.

There are two big questions:

* Does social transition reduce trans teen suicidality?
* Does medical transition reduce trans teen suicidality?

For decades, the available evidence has said yes for trans adults -- and recent evidence says yes in trans adolescents, too!

Social transition: Parental affirmation works.

Durwood McLaughlin Olson 2017: among 63 socially transitioned trans youth (9-14 years old) who had affirming parents, rates of depression and anxiety were not significantly higher than matched controls or sibling peers

Social transition: Social affirmation works.

Russell et al 2018: among 74 trans youth (15-21 years old), each additional context where one can use one's chosen name (home, school, work, with friends) correlated with 29% lower suicidal ideation and 56% lower suicidal behavior

Social affirmation: These aren't isolated studies.

Call Challa Telingator 2021's literature review found that there "is increasing evidence that gender-affirming interventions improve mental health outcomes for [transgender and gender diverse] youth".

And social affirmation doesn't lock kids into being transgender.

Call Challa Telingator 2021's literature review argued that "transgender youth have similar gender identification before and after social transition", based on a large study of 317 trans kids aged 3-12.

Medical transition: Rightists often pretend that literal children are getting Sexual Reassignment Surgeries (SRS), such as vaginoplasty, phalloplasty, mastectomy.

That's wrong for the vast majority of patients in the USA and worldwide.

In the USA, medical transition for children usually looks like puberty blockers beginning at Tanner Stage 2 (around 9 years).

Medical transition for adolescents looks like Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) beginning around 16 years.

SRS is nearly always reserved for adults.

Medical transition: Puberty blockers work.

Turban et al 2020: among 20619 trans adults (18-36 years old), 2.5% reported puberty blocker use in adolescence; that segment reported 0.3x as much lifetime suicidal ideation as those who wanted but could not receive puberty blockers:

Medical transition: Puberty blockers work.

van der Miesen et al 2019: compared to 651 cis youth, scores for internalizing, externalizing, & suicidality were similar among 178 trans youth using puberty blockers (!) but were higher among 272 trans youth not on puberty suppression

Medical transition: Puberty blockers are safe.

Call Challa Telingator 2021: literature review: puberty suppression is temporary and reversible; give time for an adolescent to decide their gender; have long been used to treat precocious puberty; show no long-term side effects:

Medical transition: HRT works.

Kuper et al 2020: among 148 trans youth (9–18yo) taking hormone replacement therapy (83%), reported mental health improved and suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) decreased at both 1-3 month and 18+ month followup

Medical transition: HRT is irreversible. So is puberty!

Call Challa Telingator 2021: The "choice to delay hormone therapy is as serious" as "the choice to start them," because "withholding may allow for irreversible pubertal development that could worsen psychological outcomes".

In summary:

* Evidence suggests that social transition reduces depression and suicidality for trans teens
* Evidence suggests that medical transition (both puberty blockers and HRT) reduces depression and suicidality for trans teens
* Ben Shapiro has the smallest brain on Earth

All sources can be found here: socdoneleft.github.io/stinky_rightwi…

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