Content Warnings:
-
Discussion of a transgender child
navigating gender-affirming healthcare
- Details of a surgical procedure
Squirrel is my eleven-year-old daughter. She is
trans.
Today, I took Squirrel to a consult for gender-affirming
care. We met with a kind and empathetic endocrinologist
who has been doing this kind of healthcare for a very
long time. She made sure we understood what puberty
actually is and what to expect. Squirrel did not want to
talk very much and was clearly uncomfortable speaking
about these things with a stranger. The doctor was
unfazed and still made sure to direct everything to her
to make sure she knows that this information and these
options are for her and that it was important for her to
understand.
The first step is to get blood work done to ensure that
her current hormone levels are such that an intervention
is currently appropriate. Once that has been confirmed,
the next step is to use puberty pausing medication
[0]
to delay the onset of masculine puberty until she is
ready to start hormone therapy and begin feminine
puberty; usually around thirteen.
The puberty pausing options are either a shot every six
months or get an implant that goes under the skin in the
soft part of the back of the upper arm a bit below the
shoulder. Squirrel quickly chose the second option.
Later, when we were in the car driving home (and she was
enjoying the very finest cuisine the nearest gas station
had to offer) she told me she was looking forward to
being a gender affirming cyborg.
Her outcomes in the long term will be better with her
being able to get this care now. Adult trans people who
went through the wrong gendered puberty will have bodies
that are less aligned with their gender identity. Most
of those things can be changed with things like cosmetic
surgery, permanent hair removal, and voice
coaching– however if someone can avoid those
changes in the first place and only go through the
puberty that aligns with their identity they
are much less likely to need those interventions later
in life.
She knows that she is fortunate to have this care
available to her in the awful political climate that our
country is experiencing right now. I am endlessly
grateful to all of the doctors, nurses, and other
supporting people who work so hard to ensure that as
many people as they can manage are able to access care.
For so many this is life and death.
I am so proud of her for pushing through the awkwardness
and discomfort and getting the care she needs. I'm so
excited for her to be able to become the woman she knows
inside that she's been all along.
Footnotes:
-
These are also referred to as "puberty
blockers", but I have seen this term be
frequently misunderstood as sounding
permanent and non-reversible when in
reality they only work while the
medication is in your system; if the
medication is no longer administered
then the body picks up where it left off
Posted 20 Elul, 5786 by bee