“There was no neuroscience to change my brain, so I had to edit my body.” - Prisha Mosley
Female mammalian bodies aren’t designed to cope with abnormal quantities of male hormones
Those in thrall to the cult of gender ideology spin the belief that not only do transgendered children exist, but that they are an infallible source of wisdom about themselves and their gendered souls (which sometimes don’t match their embodied genitalia).
Because these beliefs (in both the existence of trans children and that they have some secret knowledge around their own “truth”) are not only reprehensible, illogical and dangerously untrue, I am not going to write any further here about why these are no more than lies told to young, vulnerable humans.
I am going to write about what happens to girls who are not allowed to go through the natural stages of puberty as females, but instead are functionally neutered and left with wrecked bodies that can never be restored to full health.
Puberty - why bother with this?
All mammals are born sexually immature and unable to reproduce and homo sapiens is no exception. The purpose of puberty as a step towards adulthood is to become reproductively capable. Because, from a species perspective, this is our ‘purpose’, to create the next generation of ourselves indefinitely.
Species extinction occurs when the last reproductively capable member no longer has an opposite sexed partner to enable procreation.
It is not possible for any child of any species to go through the “wrong” puberty. Occasionally due to a variety of factors, a child may need treatment for what is medically termed a “precocious puberty”, but no teen has ever naturally experienced an incorrectly sexed puberty.
Puberty - what normally happens
It is important to understand that puberty for a girl is not a single event, but a series of smaller events that gradually build themselves into an adult woman.
Girls may start puberty any time between eight and thirteen years old; most medical advice suggests that if a girl is still not menstruating at 16, she should see a doctor. Most girls can look to the age at which their mothers and older sisters started puberty for a general idea of when they can expect to also commence this normal stage of development.
Puberty follows the same general sequence of events, which is:
· Breast development, the first and most notable sign, it occurs at the mean age of 10 years.
· Enlargement of the labia majora and labia minora.
· Clear to white vaginal discharge.
· Pubic, underarm and leg hair becomes obvious.
· Under the hormonal influence of puberty, an increase in oily skin, acne and sweating.
· The first menstrual cycle begins about 2.5 years after breasts start to develop and can range from 9 to 15 years old. Pregnancy becomes possible.
· A growth spurt during puberty that accounts for about 20% of final adult height.
· Body size increases, with feet, arms, legs and hands growing in advance of bodies, which may cause girls to feel clumsy.
· Body shape will also begin to change. There may be an increase not only in height and weight, but the hips get wider and there may also be an increase in fat in the buttocks, legs, and stomach.
Can puberty really just be paused?
In a word, no. “Gender affirming” physicians recommend starting girls on blockers when they are at Tanner Stage 2, that is before any significant breast development can be seen. Of course when using a systemic intervention like puberty blockers, far more damage is being done than just a lack of breast development.
In some cases, if a girl is not on them for an extended period of time, she may be able to recover before the deleterious effects become permanent, but some things can’t be “fixed” later.
In July 2022, the FDA issued a warning that puberty blockers carry a risk of pseudotumor cerebri, a disease with symptoms that include swelling of the optic nerve, headaches, vomiting, elevated blood pressure, and eye muscle paralysis. Permanent loss of some sight or blindness can be one result.
Puberty blockers prevent the natural development of a girl’s reproductive organs (i.e., ovaries and egg maturation). There has not been a single study on whether children will develop full reproductive capacity after “pausing puberty” by the prolonged use of puberty blockers. Animal studies have not been reassuring. One thing that is known with complete certainty is that the use of puberty blockers, followed by the administration of cross sex hormones always results in permanent sterility due to physiological changes in the body that are not reversible.
Children experience vital neurological growth and development during puberty. Going through normal puberty is essential for achieving normal adult brain maturation. The unknown impacts on development, maturation and cognition if a girl or young teenager is not exposed to the physical, psychological, physiological, neurochemical and sexual changes that accompany adolescent hormone surges are being ignored in favor of an ideological set of beliefs and feelings.
Puberty blockers diminish bone density. After just two years on puberty blockers, girls’ bone density levels can be at dangerously low levels. Additionally, as the normal growth surges expected to occur don’t, girls end up shorter than expected. And of course, if they persist in their “treatment” they end up considerably shorter than the average man whom they are attempting to mimic.
This thoughtful commentary on puberty blockers states:
Puberty suppression is not a reversible, standalone intervention, but instead, triggers a cascade of increasingly invasive medical interventions.
It goes on to discuss why and how catering to the wants that children have “now” actually removes many options they might want to exercise as adults because children’s brain are in a constant state of flux, as
often difficulties controlling behavior and emotions during adolescence stem from biologically driven disjunction between novelty and sensation seeking on one hand, both of which increase dramatically at puberty, and the development of self-regulatory competence, on the other, which does not fully mature until early adulthood.
Puberty blockers don’t pause a child’s future, they shape it into something that stunts everything and dramatically limits the opportunities for them as adults.
Young women on cross sex hormones don’t become men, they become unhealthy and dysfunctional women
Every bit of research out there has determined that the majority of children receiving puberty blockers go on to receive cross sex hormones. Puberty blockers are not the equivalent of a Sunday drive; they are a train on a predetermined track with only one destination.
The pathway to “maleness” for young women seems easy really. Have regular testosterone administered, pay a surgeon to give you trendy chest scars and stuff a packer in your panties and hey presto, you’re a man! Easy peasy, right?
The problem with appearance medicine is that your real body has to pay a price and this eventually catches up with you. The price of gaining some facial hair, a lower voice pitch and some extra muscular power is paid for by acquiring the body of an elderly woman while still in your 20s, alongside a permanently numb chest, a vaginal wall so thin that penetrative sex becomes unbearably painful, becoming anorgasmic with an irritatingly enlarged clitoris and the continuous risks of bone fractures from just walking around due to osteoporosis.
Changes in blood composition mean that a woman’s risk of having a stroke, a heart attack or some other cardiovascular event rises to a similar level as experienced by real men. Cholesterol levels and blood pressure can also rise, and this increases the risks of heart problems and the chances of developing Type 2 diabetes and having a life-threatening pulmonary embolism.
A recent study from Brazil looked at pelvic floor dysfunction in transgender men on testosterone and found that 94.1% of the participants had at least one pelvic floor problem that had a negative impact on their lives. These included bladder storage problems, sexual dysfunction, anorectal symptoms, flatal incontinence and urinary problems.
In an earlier post I wrote:
In addition to the physical risks of excess testosterone on the female body, psychological changes are well known. These can include increased irritability, frustration, and anger. There are reports of testosterone destabilizing trans men who have preexisting conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. “Transitioning” will not cure, remove or override any other mental health issues that have been ignored or left untreated. In fact, it may make them worse.
Pregnant “dads” haven’t been on blockers; just taken cross sex hormones
“Not all birthing people are women” is one of many lies pushed by the trans lobby. The use of an ideological slant on the word “women” is irrelevant for biologically differently sexed people having intercourse. Bodies don’t “identify” they just are.
Some women living as men get pregnant deliberately because they want a baby. (No, I do not understand this either as no real men can do this.) Some get pregnant accidentally because they mistakenly think that if their periods have stopped, they are infertile (not true). Testosterone does make it harder to conceive (as women with PCOS know all too well), but it is not a contraceptive method and should never be relied on for this purpose.
And some women mature out of their gender dysphoria and live with regret for the rest of their lives at the self-inflicted losses that can never be replaced.
For some women, due to the permanent changes wrought by taking testosterone, having a vaginal birth is not going to be an option and their babies will have to be delivered via cesarian section. This major surgical procedure increases the risks of morbidity and mortality for both mothers and babies, but it is sometimes unavoidable, due to the fragility of the testosterone influenced vaginal wall and/or, as this young woman found, structural issues from hormone use during developmentally critical time periods.
The largest grief for these mothers is often the loss of the ability to breastfeed their babies as discussed in this case study. As the cohort who had their breasts removed as teenagers grow into their 20s, more and more women are going to have the joy of new motherhood overshadowed by the experience of their babies searching for breasts that were thrown away as medical waste.
The anguish of detransitioned women having babies should be a clarion call for recognizing the facts around “gender affirming care”, which in its present form is no care at all. Supporting young women (and men) to come to terms with the reality and “rightness” of their sexed bodies is the only workable long term plan. And while we’re at it, how about we expand the acceptability of everyone to present how they choose, without putting them in a box that means the only way forward is medical harm.
Grim reading indeed about what continuous use of artificial testosterone does to a woman's body.
Such important work you are doing, Lucy. All power to you!