Autistic girls seeking answers ‘are seizing on sex change’

[Jarhyn]

Not to mention that not everyone can even get cheaper or less painful hair removals done. There are certain things that just can't be addressed, fixed, or altered effectively after the fact of an unwanted puberty.

Yeah. There are so many complications and considerations, compromises, difficult decisions as it is. A lot of the decision making happens far past what you want, and is deep in 'what is it even possible for me to do?' territory. Time feels like your enemy through most of it. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of unqualified opinions on what trans people should do when wrt to medical/ social/ legal transition. They make it sound easy like flipping a switch.

The goal is to have fewer expensive, painful, difficult interventions. We will have fewer interventions if we allow access to blockers through the teens for such people.

I agree generally. Improved health outcomes are the highest priority. For instance, if a transgender girl starts puberty blockers early and goes straight to cross-sex hrt, it may limit options for vaginoplasty down the road leaving options which involve skin grafts or the use of colon tissue. In aggregate, that may still mean a reduction in difficult interventions, but it's so variable depending on individual needs. Tradeoffs at every step.

Yeah, it's just so hard. Like, give me a character select and the option I would take is... Let's just say it's more creative than Cyberpunk 2077. And depending on how far technology would allow, probably farther and weirder than anyone on these forums would be comfortable with. Maybe something Lovecraftian even.

Anyway, I could honestly, I think, pull my own trigger with nothing down there at all at this point, but I don't think that's really the direction I would go, either. Doctors certainly wouldn't take me as far as I would ask them to go even today. I'm well over 30 at this point. Time isn't my enemy because... Well, I think we as people CAN "Altered Carbon" and will achieve this in our lifetimes, assuming you live as old as that oligarch fuck who just kicked it. I don't know if I'll make it that long, or think even now that I have in any way earned such a thing. I don't know if that can possibly be earned, and that troubles me more than anything. That said, time is the enemy of us all in some ways.

So of course I am going to be an advocate for rights of self determination. Because I wish to be afforded this right. I think the only people who don't around here are those so high up on their pedestal only because they either conveniently already have what they want, or they lack the hubris and the temerity to seek it. I wonder who that makes a "soy" or a "cuck" or whatever the latest slur intended wronglu for people who don't accept the expectation that they act as a weak man's idea of a strong one.

[Rhea]

This topic has discussed biology and psychology more than politics. The mod team has recommended moving it to Science.

[Emily Lake]

Trimmed for length

Similarly, a transboy could have electrolysis to remove facial hair, albeit at great expense and usually not as permanent as we are led to believe.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of laser?

Very likely. It's good to know that electrolysis is more effective. I've acquired some really obnoxious chin hairs as I've aged, and I'd love to make them go away for good. Still pricey though. Otherwise, I would totally remove my armpit hairs for good.

These photos are over a decade apart (I believe 24/25 in the first and just shy of 38 in the second), and one is a shitty, low res selfie I snapped just now, but they do illustrate a considerable difference: after hundreds of hours of electrolysis I now have a totally different hat.

Well done, that made me giggle!

I really don't wish any of that on her, but at the same time, I do wish I had the options and resources she had available to her available to me when I was fifteen (or younger). Part of the reason I don't wish any of that on her is I've lived it. Painfully. And some of it could have been spared from me for certain.

And that's where more stringent guidelines for minors come into play. I'm not 100% opposed to transitioning minors, but I do think there should be considerably more care taken to ensure that gender dysphoria requiring transition is the most appropriate approach, and that other factors have been addressed. If a child is autistic, make sure that appropriate occupational therapy has been undergone, and that the dysphoria is genuine before proceeding. Similarly, if a minor has a history of mental health issues, make sure that those are addressed first. All of that, however, flies out the window in a self-id and affirmation-only environment.

I would love for the options to be meaningfully available to to the true positives, and to reduce the false positives as much as possible.