transman39 wrote:
BTW if the use of puberty blockers has such a damaging effect on the bone health of young transitioners, then that would in fact put them at a disadvantage when competing in sports, would it not?
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The use of GnRHa drugs as "puberty blockers" in "young transitioners" have negative effects on their bone health across the board, but the nature and extent of the negative effects are different depending on their sex - their actual sex, not the sex they wish they were and they are taking "blockers" and hormones to resemble.
The damaging effects in female transtioners apppear to be greater and far more extensive than in males. This is due to a variety of factors, starting with the fact that bone mineralization and bone growth is very complex, and there appear to be a number of differences in what factors drive these processes and how exactly they occur in the two sexes.
On top of that, girls start puberty of adolescence an average of 2 years earlier than boys, and girls go through their major skeletal growth spurts much earlier than boys too.
This means trans-identified female children put on "blockers" are put on them at younger ages than boys and they stay on them for more years overall. Moreover, girls put on "blockers" are put on testosterone at later ages than boys are put on estrogen.
Parents and doctors in "pediatric gender medicine" want to see male trans-identified children start developing breast buds and breasts as early as females do, so boys on blockers often start estrogen at or by 12 (Jazz started at 11, Jackie Green at 12.) But most parents and doctors are not in a hurry to see female trans-identified children develop acne, facial hair and lower voices at 9, 10, 11, 12.
So even though girls will be put on "blockers" for "gender affirmation" at 8, 9, 10 testosterone is often not administered to females until they are 14 or older - when they are either completely done with or midway through the stage of development when they do most of their skeletal development and would naturally gain most of their BMD.
The upshot is that female trans-identified kids undergoing "early medical transition" have ended up going through their major adolescent skeletal growth spurts without any gonadal or Big Pharma steroid hormones in their systems at all - no estrogen or progesterone made by their ovaries, and no exogneous testosterone prescribed by their doctors yet, either. This has set them up for bone/skeletal disaster.
One of the reasons that the governments of Sweden, the UK, Finland and Norway have all put the brakes on "medical transition" of minors is that more than a dozen female children given "gender affirming care" at the world-renowned Karolinska Institut in Stockholm ended up with such severe skeletal problems that their limb bones, jaws and backs kept breaking, they're permanently disabled, and in constant pain. There have also been reports of female youngsters whose femurs have snapped "out of the blue" because they aren't strong and sturdy enough to hold up the weight of their bodies as they get older.
By contrast, most male trans-identified kids undergoing "early medical transition" per the Dutch protocol and US standards will be on "blockers" only months or a year before they are put on estrogen as well. So when they go through their major skeletal growth spurts in their mid-teens likes males do, they have plenty of Big Pharma estrogen in their systems to insure bone health. Their bones won't be as dense as they would be if they had gone through normal male puberty with all that gonadal testosterone, but the exogenous estrogen they're on will go a long way to making up for the lack of testosteone.
Still, males put on "puberty blockers" early will develop lowered bone density compared to other males their same chronological age, and this will put them at greater risk of osteoporosis at some point. Avocates of child transition say, however, that with supplements and medications the diminished bone density in males can be staved off. Though that might be wishful thinking.
We do know, however, that the "trans youth" at greatest risk for bone and skeletal problems, and major ones that can cripple them, are the female ones.
As for how this relates to males in female sports: I would expect reduced bone density relative to the male norm that trans-identified males put on "blockers" and cross-sex homeones for "early transtion" experience would put them at at disadvantage against other males either before or beginning in their mid-teens. But I wouldn't assume that measn they'd necessarily be disadvantaged against females. That's just a guess - we really don't know because unfortunately no one is studying this stuff.
But since all we have to go on at this point is anecdotal evidence, it's worth mentioning that Jazz Jennings played girls' soccer and lacrosse and maybe some other girls' sports for 4-5 years afterJazz started "blockerrs" and estrogen at 11. And this didn't seem to cause Jazz to lose the physical advantages that now enable 22-year old Jazz to boast on Jazz's TLC show, "I was always the best one on every team" in girls' sports that Jazz ever played on or against.
(BTW, I have always wondered if Jazz "always being the best" in all the girls' sports Jazz did growing up - and presumably in girls' PE too - might have been a factor in Jazz's decision to drop out of regular HS after 10th grade and do the rest of HS online. I've also always wondered if Jazz's history of "always being the best" in the girls' sports Jazz did growing up and into Jazz's mid-teens played a role in the etiology of the binge eating disorder Jazz developed after dropping out of regular HS and Jazz's obesity. Jazz was nearly 50 lbs overweight when Jazz turned 17, and 22-year-old Jazz has been more than 100 lbs overweight for the past several years. )
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Apologies for the odd formatting. LRC is glitchy right now.
