Altering the appearance of one’s gender through hormone treatment or surgery is a permanent decision with lifelong health consequences that go beyond cosmetics.
Brittle bones, affected brain development, and the loss of a functioning reproductive system are among the possible side effects of gender transition.
It is crucial for those seeking treatment for gender dysphoria to consider the lifelong consequences of such treatments, but that is a tall order for young patients with still developing brains and bones and who have not yet hit puberty.
It is also a tough task for those on the autism spectrum, who are seen at a higher rate in the transgender community compared to the general population, according to doctors at the Gender and Sexuality Development Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), speaking in a Pennsylvania taxpayer-funded series of transgender therapy training workshops for workers in health care and education….