WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

@BM: I keep telling people that Julia had the right idea and that it would save us money in the long run (and lives) but noooooo. People were all "OMG MONEY GO BYE BYE NOW!!!".
Fucking idiots. And now we have That Fucker.
;.;

A lot of transgender youths have an issue when they grow up with having their voices changed during puberty. Not only does it take away the reality of their gender but it makes it easier for assholes to 'spot the trans'. There's also a stigma in that community, from what I've seen, where they believe they need to be trans when they're young or it changes some big part of them when they're older - despite there being a lot of older transgender men and women out there who are living examples that your age of change doesn't matter.

Honestly, I'm still a bit in the air about it - I can understand the desire to not have puberty changing parts of you that you will have to retrain over the course of years in order to get back in to it's desired point, but on the other hand I feel that maybe they're too young sometimes to understand fully whether they are that gender or not... but then I've never not felt female so I have no idea what it's like to be sure of being one gender when your the other and having to fight every day for the recognition of your gender - as though it were a choice and not who you actually are.

See, a little torn. I want to support but I'm still a bit confused on it. I guess, as long as the actual pill doesn't have horrible side effects or mess with their body in any other way, it would be fine. If, later down the track, they change their mind or realise they aren't the gender they thought, then they could just stop having the pill, but at what point does that change become an issue with their hormones and growth? I'm just imagining 30 year olds hitting puberty for the first time...

Also, there's the laws to consider. Parents have legal sway over their children until the age of emancipation, which is usually after the child has gone through puberty, so in essence it is up to the parents if the child can take that medication or not and I could see issues arising when a child wants the medication and their parents disagree... It could lead to a younger emancipation age and I could see certain sectors pushing for a lowering of the age of consent if certain laws were to pass to allow kids to become, effectively, 'adults' in name.

It's a clusterfuck. >.<

Wait, is this actually something that's being researched, or just a hypothetical?

I'm not sure what to think. Side-effects are a huge worry, and so are uninformed parents, guardians, doctors... And I would guess that the effects of a drug like that could out someone as well. It might be helpful to some, but I imagine it would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis and with a lot of discussion beforehand. Dysphoria is gonna be different for everyone. I imagine this sort of drug would avoided in most cases, if possible..?

But, if we have the technology, it seems silly not to at least consider every possibility. There's enough crap in life without having to worry about your identity constantly, and anything that makes it easier for people sounds good to me.

@lockez: Yea, I don't even wanna try and wrap my brain around that tbh. That said, I've never heard of pedophiles thinking of themselves as children.

author=LockeZ
We're not paintings but statues, starting out as blobs of superficial emotions and traits, shaped by having the world wear away at us, destroying all the parts of us that couldn't take the pain and leaving only the truth.

Put this on my tombstone.

author=LockeZ
I still want to find a career as a ninja turtle.

I WOULD TAKE THAT CAREER IN A HEARTBEAT.

Thinking Kidlike is good because adult reality is fuckin depressing.

Why else would I make games about red cats, green dogs and kangaroos going off to save the world from a barbed face... made of hydrogen gas... thing. Yeah.

Screw science when kiddie reasoning is involved. I will never stop excusing holes in my scientific reasoning with "because I say so".

Edit: SHIT! Sorry folks that was accidental, urrrgh!

author=Corfaisus
Medication to stop the onset of puberty to help transgendered children better understand themselves and allow them to choose which gender they want to be identified as with the risk of unforeseen complications later on down the line due to being relatively new and untested. I'm not sure how to feel about this.

First off, we don't know what it might do. Secondly, isn't acceptance more of a social problem than a mental health problem? Bullying will happen - especially at formative ages - but is some "wonder pill" the solution to lowering the suicide rates of transgendered youths?

I gotta be honest, I find myself really against the idea of a drug like this. It may sound cliche but in my opinion it really is "science going too far". The answer to helping someone who's transgender at a young age isn't pumping their body full of chemicals that will pretty obviously have side effects, it's getting them stuff like psychiatric help until they're old enough to know for sure what they want. I sure as hell wouldn't trust a young child to make that kind of decision before they've really even experienced the world.

Going through puberty is way too important an experience to the Human life to just snip off with a pill.

author=SnowOwl
In reality a turtle ninja would be less than impressive.

They probably wouldn't be good at hiding or assassinations, but there shells would provide solid defense and they have the advantage of taking their opponents off guard in combat, since no one expects turtles to be a bit faster than they thought or psychopathically aggressive.

Look at how this turtle bullies these cats away from their food. They mean business!

The cats should have known when enough was enough and started batting the turtle around like a hockey puck.

author=Craze

BizarreMonkey
This thread took a dark turn somewhere along the way.

not the darkest it's been

Oh, do tell.

Never take life advice from anyone who has never been successful because they'll be the first ones to tell you how.