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Medical Credentials?

I ask Dave Holmes (Feb. 15, "The Opposing Viewpoint") to state his medical credentials. He says, "The opposing viewpoint is that gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, should never be recommended for children under 18," but the Mayo Clinic Staff on their website indicates that pubertal blockers can be started as soon as puberty begins. I have no medical credentials, but it seems reasonable to me to assume that by age 18, the physical developments of puberty are largely complete, so the use of blockers is meaningless as they don't reverse puberty; they only pause it. They go on to say, "(u)se of [pubertal blockers] pauses puberty, providing time to determine if a child's gender identity is long-lasting. It also gives children and their families time to think about or plan for the psychological, medical, developmental, social, and legal issues ahead.

"If an adolescent child decides to stop taking [pubertal blockers], puberty will resume and the normal progression of the physical and emotional changes of puberty will continue."

Perhaps, though, the Guilford Human Rights Commission (GHRC) should have brought in another speaker to talk about non-medical or emotional gender-affirming care. Increased risk of suicide is a definite risk of gender dysphoria, and a supportive/accepting community reduces that risk.

Carol Hwang

Guilford