October 28, 2022
by Christine Richey
She was a new face, a young visitor. She was introduced to my daughter, who invited her to sit with our family in our pew at church. Immediately I noticed a difference in her versus other 18 year old girls. She looked unhealthy, and seemed very frail. I hurried over to her and introduced myself because I wanted her to feel welcome. As I moved closer, I sensed a difference not only in her appearance, but in her demeanor. Kindly I shook her hand and greeted her. I sat back down, and as I did, a flood of feelings came to me. This young person was not physically healthy. Some of my children asked me who this new person was. My youngest daughter even asked, “Is she a boy or a girl?”
An increasing number of children and adolescents are being diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Raising kids today is no small task. There are many voices out there telling children who they are and what they can become, whether true or false. With access to unprecedented amounts of information at their fingertips, the minds of our youth have the potential to be misled about how to cope and handle the distress that sometimes comes along with their growing, changing bodies, sexual development, and gender. Although gender dysphoria can be a real concern, are professionals too quick to treat and diagnose gender dysphoria? Is this now common diagnosis creating greater issues such as medical transitioning, which is known to lead to infertility, pain, harmful side effects, dependency on pharmaceutical companies and even suicidal thoughts?
Children who medically transition are being told they will find mental health relief and happiness as a result of hormone therapy and surgery. “Gender affirming care” policies, as their advocates have dubbed them, give children access to puberty blockers, which prevent a child’s perfectly healthy body from naturally maturing sexually. Is this really helping these children find relief, or is it harming them even more? The Food and Drug Administration has recently put warnings on certain puberty blocker drugs because of their severe and harmful side effects. Research shows evidence of the many challenges and severe health risks involved for children who are on puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and those who receive sex reassignment surgery. This kind of surgery is mislabeled. No amount of drugs or surgery will change the DNA of a person.
Parents are being told by medical professionals that their children will commit suicide if they are not allowed to receive “gender affirming care”. This puts even more emotional distress and confusion on parents as they seek advice, answers and solutions to help their children. Research has challenged this idea as the suicide rate for transgender children has increased. Moreover, recent policies are making it easier for youth in the United States to seek transitioning hormones (puberty blockers) as young as 8 years of age. Some states do not have policies in place to help protect children from accessing such harmful drugs and they are allowing children to begin therapy without parental consent. Does a young child who is just starting puberty understand the consequences of such a choice? Are they able to think past the here and now and into the future? Do they understand that they may feel worse mentally, emotionally, and physically, and that they may never be able to have children later in life? How can we help protect our youth from the harmful voices that lead them astray, and help them find real security, peace and understanding about themselves and their gender?
Today there are detransitioners sharing their stories of the many health issues along with mental and emotional distress they suffered and still suffer as a result of hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery. Parents’ rights are slowly disintegrating making it difficult for parents to guide their children on these issues. Doctors, psychiatrists, teachers and policy makers are creating a separation between parents and their children, causing a division in the modern family. They are isolating children and putting barriers between children and those that are concerned for their health and well-being.
We must re-evaluate the medical and mental health policies that allow this kind of care and treatment of children. We need to make a stand. If parents are being misinformed and even limited in their efforts to help their children, who is helping their children give their consent and understand the lifetime consequences that medical transitioning will have on their health and identity? What are the repercussions of these state, federal, and other organizational policies that allow children to medically transition at such a young age? For example, a push for a gender neutral society may cause human sexuality to be lost, making it more difficult for science to find solutions on healthcare all together. Are we doing all we can to understand the negative consequences of “gender affirming care”?
Few U.S. states are fighting to protect our youth. As a society we must make our voices heard. Professionals need to do more research, and be careful and cautious when labeling people with gender dysphoria. If we are not more guarded with the lives of our youth, these radical ideas and treatments will snowball. As organizations and professionals groom more of our youth into a state of gender dysphoria, and eventually medical castration and infertility, there will be an alarming increase of sexless individuals.
This takes us back to my young daughter’s question about our new friend who sat with our family at church. After a few weeks this young person shared with us that he was really a young man who identified as a girl and was contemplating surgery. He later asked me if I felt like he belonged. Maybe he was asking me if he could ever be loved. Or maybe he was really asking me for answers about his distressed feelings and his gender confusion and how to deal with them.
I came to learn that he suffered from depression, had recently been diagnosed bipolar and was recovering from an eating disorder. He told me he had been abused and hurt when he was younger by his older brother and father. Did that cause him to question or even dislike his birth gender? Did he need someone who would listen to his other concerns and feelings of belonging? These sensitive topics about gender dysphoria are real-life for many and we cannot ignore them by insisting only on a “gender affirming” model for care.
A person’s gender identity is part of their sexual make-up. No surgery or hormone therapy can completely change that fact. If we do not help our youth understand that they can always find belonging, even in their birth sex and gender, then I fear that more and more of our children and youth will make hasty, ill-informed decisions that will gravely impact their future. We need to help our youth suffering from gender dysphoria to feel comfortable in their own bodies. We need to help them know that we are here with them along their journey of mortality and that they belong just as they are.