We have a bunch of posts about Scientific American in the Twitchy archives on topics ranging from climate anxiety being linked to white fragility to using physics to defend “abortion care.” SciAm had already lost us when it endorsed Joe Biden, and it hasn’t gained any of that ground back. Last year, Scientific American explained that the crisis doctors faced in the 1950s was having no idea what made people male or female. Also last year, Scientific American revealed that until the late 18th century, “Western science recognized only one sex.”
We were going to do a post on this the other day but took a pass:
Greetings twitterverse! my latest for SciAm in response to the ongoing “sex is not binary” vs. the call to define human women and men via their gametes. This is the ~900 word version, stay tuned for the 50,000 word version in 2024.https://t.co/asAKG8T3a4
— Agustin Fuentes (@Anthrofuentes) May 1, 2023
“Here’s why human sex is not binary,” explains the Princeton anthropologist. Now Scientific American is at it again defending puberty blockers, pointing to the decades of data supporting their use (in managing precocious puberty). This comes at a time when trans activists are railing against “forced puberty.”
Decades of data support the use and safety of puberty-pausing medications, which give transgender adolescents and their families time to weigh important medical decisions https://t.co/2buX9mtEk8
— Scientific American (@sciam) May 3, 2023
Allison Parshall reports:
Half of transgender people aged 13 to 24 have seriously considered suicide in the past year, according to a 2023 nationwide survey released on May 1 by the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ suicide prevention. Gender-affirming hormone therapy can decrease this risk. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, for example, showed that hormone therapy significantly decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety in transgender youth. Another study found that transgender teenagers who received gender-affirming care were 73 percent less likely to self-harm or have suicidal thoughts than those who didn’t.
Medication that pauses puberty, specifically, has the power to prevent a mental health crisis, making the treatment a “profoundly meaningful intervention” for a young person and their family, says Meredithe McNamara, an adolescent medicine physician at the Yale School of Medicine. “Puberty-blocking treatment is probably one of the most compassionate things that a parent can consent to for a transgender child.” It allows transgender children and their families the opportunity to weigh their options carefully, without the constant pressure of physical changes, she says.
Once more: We’re not going to let people like the Trevor Project use suicide as extortion. “If this child goes through puberty, he’ll probably kill himself!” Or … stay with us … maybe there’s a link between gender dysphoria and suicidal ideation that neither chemicals nor surgery will fix.
We’ve been assured by the White House that puberty blockers are totally reversible, and they’ve made cute cartoons pushing puberty blockers on fifth graders. There was even an American Girl book, “A Smart Girl’s Guide: Body Image,” which advertised puberty blockers. Maybe everyone should be put on puberty blockers just in case they’re transgender and don’t know it yet.
Could you lie more blatantly? There is no research demonstrating the safety and efficacy of puberty blockers. Sweden, Norway, Finland and the UK did a comprehensive search of available studies and came to that conclusion. All four ended the use of puberty blockers.
— Kilgore Trout (@RadioFreeStPaul) May 3, 2023
Low quality data that has no randomized trials. And significant data showing real irreversible harms. If this is the junk pushed by “The Science” then we may as well be back in the Dark Ages.
— Jon Ward, MD (@dermatophyte) May 3, 2023
The vast majority of children who experience gender dysphoria will, if not “affirmed,” desist by the time they end puberty, and most will likely grow up to be gay/lesbian adults. You are advocating for the most insidious form of gay conversion therapy yet developed.
— Joseph Jones (@JoeGayHistorian) May 3, 2023
This exemplifies 1) full subordination to politics, 2) institutional capture and 3) the pervasive spread of cargo cult science
— Story Horse! 🏴☠️ (@bostronix) May 3, 2023
Scientific American has been totally ruined.
— RD (@DikemanDave) May 3, 2023
I remember when you used to be a respectable scientific publication.
— Twine Mormossa (@TwineMormossa) May 3, 2023
🚨🚨🚨@CommunityNotes 🚨🚨🚨
— Jason Bradley (@everybodyshook) May 3, 2023
. @sciam, this is reckless, irresponsible reporting which completely ignores current international research and debate in this field. We will be in touch.
— Genspect (@genspect) May 3, 2023
If this is true, than why did Marci Bowers state that NONE of the boys who were blocked at Tanner Stage 2 are able to experience orgasm?
If they are experiencing “puberty” with cross sex hormones they would be able to orgasm afterwards right? pic.twitter.com/ssa4Kne27B
— Audra Facinelli 🇺🇸 (@audraf637) May 3, 2023
There is no such thing as "safely pausing puberty"
Everyone knows it, they just lie.
— SomeFNguy (@SomeFNGuy1) May 3, 2023
There are no long term follow up studies of kids treated with GnRH agonists. There is *one* case study, published by the Dutch.
You got nothin’. Stop making stuff up.
— Julia Mason MS MD (@JuliaMasonMD1) May 3, 2023
"Adolescence can be a uniquely distressing time"
You could have stopped right there. That's normal for everyone. What's happened is that some unscrupulous people have found a way to capitalize on that distress and a bunch of useful idiots are playing along.
— Eva Kurilova (@eva_kurilova) May 3, 2023
PUBERTY IS NOT A DISEASE. And you are LYING to the public about the "safety" of puberty blockers. No, these do NOT pause puberty, they totally derail it, leaving these vulnerable people with horrendous permanent side effects, including lower IQ, osteoporosis, organ failure, etc.
— 🦖💜🤍💚 𝓙𝓮𝓷𝓷𝓲𝓯𝓮𝓻 𝓛𝓮𝓮 (@jennifer_1ee) May 3, 2023
You could list the applicable "studies" in a single tweet. That they occurred in different decades is immaterial.
— Meeting Attender (@ZumacrumMN) May 3, 2023
Do you remember when you sold out, and has it been worth it?
— ℚ𝕦𝕖𝕫𝕥𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕠𝕒𝕥𝕝 (@quetzlovercoatl) May 3, 2023
They’re pushing puberty blockers directly to children and leading adults to believe that if their son doesn’t want to get a haircut then he may be a candidate for “gender-affirming care.” If you were shouted down because you thought the COVID vaccine was untested and experimental, check out what they’re doing with puberty blockers. Hand ’em out like candy!
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Related:
Andrew Sullivan asks if ‘upbeat promo for puberty blockers’ should be taught to fifth graders https://t.co/m94aEC27OH
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 14, 2022
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