For the last two years, Koen has routinely self-administered weekly testosterone injections without a second thought.
During that time, the trans 17-year-old said his self-image and school and family life has drastically improved. His fear of needles, too, has faded.
“[Transitioning] made me look forward to things more because now I can start paying attention to the better version of myself,” said Koen, who asked to be identified by his first name because of fears for his safety. “It’s something I feel like I’ve needed for a while. I’m able to express myself more fluidly and feel comfortable doing that, which I think is a very big step for me right now.”
At the start of the year, though, a greater worry emerged.
A new law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Louisiana took effect on Jan. 1 prohibiting puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender-reaffirming surgery. Now, Koen isn’t sure he could continue his hormone treatment.
Louisiana is one of 22 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for minors, disrupting health care needs for trans and nonbinary people.
I thought all the evidence was coming back that being a minor and transitioning is too young.
Seems that when kids start going through puberty they they get unhappy with their body which is a tale as old as time. But then when they turn into an adult that have gone through the natural process of growing up and they fit with their body.
That’s why countries are reducing giving life changing drugs to kids that just need time. Sometimes you just need to go through the growing pains.
I’m 49.
I knew in 1978 that I was the wrong gender even though I didn’t know what being trans was.
I come from a conservative CATHOLIC British/Irish family living in small town Canada. Went to catholic school and everything. Needless to say I got ZERO help.
The first time I tried to kill myself I was 9. It wasn’t until 2020 and covid that I actually sat down and realized I need to do something because if I die of covid (autoimmune disorders) I will die never being happy and I WANT to be happy.
Unfortunately my realizations came at the same time americans decided to go full nazi and all I get when reaching out to trans communities is those communities being bombarded with attacks from american nazis.
I wish I could have transitioned when I was a kid, it would have saved me from 40+ years of pain and suffering. Ironically before I can take the steps medically to feel better I actually have to repair the damage caused by 30 years of anti depressants and anti psychotics used as a Band-Aid trying to fix my mental health without dealing with the root issue which is gender dysphoria likely caused by being neurodivergent (which was something that wasn’t discovered until a few years ago).
Children shouldn’t have to suffer the way we older generations had to suffer. The brain cannot be reprogrammed, it’s hardwired, someone who is trans can’t stop being trans any more than someone can stop being autistic or having adhd.
I wish you all the luck in the world and hope we’re able to do something about the slime oppressing you and other trans people.
Thank you so much for sharing your story 💖
Love ya, friendo
Did you know: Puberty blockers cause ZERO harm to children, and to reverse the effects, which will allow puberty to continue its course, just stop the medicine!
This adolescent person that is nearly the age of majority will now have to suffer anxiety, body image issues, potential suicidal and self-harm ideation, and general misery, because the a person decided that what this other person was doing for self care, and to improve their mental health, was wrong. I’m so glad these lawmakers with NO BIAS and MEDICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE are making laws, that are obviously not for any agenda and hurting nobody in particular, because trans people like me aren’t actually real people and shouldn’t be allowed to be comfortable in their own body.
You can’t just make stuff up
Hey how about you educate yourself, since you’re rejecting lots of good faith attempts to do it for you? The science checks out, you just haven’t actually read any of it. At best you’ve had it misrepresented to you, much the way a parent would lie to a child.
Anything that messes with your hormones absolutely has the chance of causing harm. Whether that is birth control, or even giving test to a guy with low levels.
Go on then in good faith. How does it cause zero harm? Zero has been emphasised. I want to know it doesn’t cause more or less height, more or less hair growth. No pain. No anxiety. No worries. Nothing for anyone. Remember it has to be ZERO harm. Not only mild or only small harm, not occasional harm. It has to be 0. ZERO harm. Can you show me a source for that please?
Government of the world are educated on this matter and they are changing there minds on it. I’m not an expert so I’m not the one that needs convincing they do.
Zero harm in the context of being used for folks concerned with their gender identity. If we’re considering height discrepancies to be “serious harm”, then we’re not really having a good faith discussion at all. You CLEARLY don’t need convincing, seeing as any effort spent will be wasted. You’re a brick wall asking me to walk through you.
Like I said. I don’t need convincing it’s the trained experts in multiple countries having looked at the evidence are deciding to change things stop puberty blockers because of worries of harm.
What, only you’re allowed to just make shit up?
What have I made up?
The only statements I have made are messing with your hormones have an impact on a person. Can’t believe that’s in dispute.
Secondly. Countries are reducing the use of puberty blockers for teens due to worries over harm and I provided a source.
Or hear me out we let them block puberty because that’s literally hurting nobody and preventing them from doing so very clearly does hurt people.
But also you know that kids don’t think they are trans cause of puberty angst right? Come on man. If you were fundamentally unhappy going through puberty as a teen then sorry to say but that’s actually not normal. Most people are rather content knowing their balls will get hairy or they’ll grow boobs. We’re talking about kids who’ve been dreading puberty since like they knew what it was. I’ll again repeat if you dreaded puberty that’s not normal.
I was actually pretty happy with my body, but I’m a specimen. I was concerned about girls being taller than me when I was like 12 and slightly worried about my dick size. But I ended out coming above average it both so no bother.
I was on about the UK, France, Finland, Sweden, Denmark etc all these countries having given hormones to kids for years now realising its not the best idea.
https://apnews.com/article/uk-transgender-puberty-blockers-abd9145484006fea23de6b4656c937da
So you think trans boys want to be… Taller?
All of who are wrong. We’ve been using hormone blockers (that’s what puberty blockers are) for decades. It’s how we treat genetic malfunctions that cause too much testosterone or estrogen to be produced. The side effects are extremely well known and documented there’s nothing scary about them plus at any point you can just stop taking them and your hormones stop being blocked. Typically you’ll take estrogen or testosterone for awhile afterwards to go through puberty if you prevented it from happening naturally.
So to recap hormone blockers are harmless as well as fully reversible. Allowing trans people to access them greatly reduces suicidality and preventing access increases suicidality. So if you are somebody who cares about people’s well-being you cannot prevent access to hormone blockers as it objectively results in more harm than allowing access. When confronted with this reality you guys typically pivot to saying that actually trans people are unhappy which no fucking shit, you people are trying to prevent them from existing.
I wasn’t talking about what trans boys want at all.
I was talking about myself wanting to be taller. Most guys do because tall guys are treated better. Also being bigger than people tends to make you better at sport.
I love how you can just make claims like that, must be a great power. Never mind all these government agencies with loads of data and doctors and experts on hand. No Traister has spoken!
Anything that make changes to you can be harmful. You’re telling me if a boy has no testosterone from 12 to 18 then decides it was a mistake 6 years of no testosterone will have no effect on him mentally or physically? If it doesn’t why would anyone want to take it.
Edited: changed from girl taking test to guy not having test.
Testosterone is not horome blockers. From what I recall the conservative (medical) recommendation is to postpone horome therapy until 16 since that’s when the law determines them able minded enough for the rest of the medical decisions. As for regret yes, some people do regret transitioning but all the studies that have been done (that aren’t using faulty methodology like counting girls playing with action figures when young children as being trans) have shown that the regret rate is lower than fuckn knee surgery. That’s pretty goddamn low. And guess what? Most people who regret transitioning regret it because transphobes make their life hell. Plus the majority only de-transition temporarily, typically because they are unable to pay for their hormone therapy. However they generally are still transitioned socially IE they have different pronouns and dress differently so in reality there’s very few de-transitioners. Many of the ones you see on Fox News still refer to themselves as trans even. It’s pretty sad how easy it is to be a grifter.
I edited my comment for better accuracy.
Looks like you got different studies to many countries in Europe. They are seeing something you are missing.
Okay sure so with your updated comment not going through puberty will have some mental and physical effects. That’s obvious though since well, so does puberty, that’s the point of it happening. Not going through puberty will obviously mean you won’t experience the results of puberty.
What hormone blockers do is allow people to postpone puberty which is exactly what people like you should want trans kids to do. They get to decide what they want when they are older not have an irreversible puberty forced upon them. I’m not of the mind that we need to force trans kids to wait until they are an adult but that’s the obvious argument you should be making, not prevention. Trans kids will exist even if you remove access to horome blockers you just make their lives worse for no reason.
Wow, you should read some actual evidence then instead of just thinking about it!
The rate of kids that don’t transition after being on puberty blockers is something like <2%. All I’ve seen is some people crying about regret rates increasing by a lot when it goes from like 1 to 2%. “It doubled!!!” (Should be obvious that it will go up a little the easier it is to get treatment).
In any case, while puberty blockers aren’t without adverse effects, those aren’t huge, so prohibiting them is utterly nonsensical unless a majority of kids end up not going through with it.
And if a child knows at age 7 that it’s not the gender it was assigned at birth, that’s not some puberty thing. Which is a significant portion of transgender people.