I want to tell you about someone I know, let’s call him Tim. A few years ago, Tim was a
troubled 20-something year old living in Pennsylvania. His friends had come to expect some instability, and tried to support him by just being the best friends they could. One day Tim learned about transgenderism and thought, “This is it!” Tim became certain that living as the other gender was the answer to his troubles. So he changed his name to Darlene, marched down to the nearest doctor’s office and got a quick diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which allowed him to start taking hormones to make his body change.
This use of hormones to trick your male body into producing female stuff is nicely termed, Hormone Replacement Therapy, or HRT. But Tim came to realize that this “replacement” he was making was one his body’s organs, cells and systems not were going to readily acknowledge, which meant a good deal of trouble for him.
The following might be difficult to read, but you should read it. These are the typical experiences. With Tim, we are speaking here only of effects on an adult. Doing this to children presents deeper dangers because the younger the person is, the more the health risks are magnified.
For a man trying to be female, HRT will first mean becoming prone to bruising and cuts, as well as having mood and appetite go haywire. But those are the minor effects. Emotions often change in unpredictable ways, which is why psychotherapy is recommended for those going through it. Sexual arousal will go down, sorry. And one’s testes will shrink to half the size. As the hormones develop small breasts, they may be uneven.
If you are able to escape the very real risk of developing blood clots or liver damage in trying to make your body female, the “therapy” can continue. Within a few months, you become PERMANENTLY STERILE. Say goodbye to siring children, even if you de-transition. The longer one takes the hormones into the male body, the less reversible the effects are. Maybe some of the physical feature changes could be undone, but the breast growth that some guys are able to experience, for example, will not.
If you inject estrogen, you could have hot flashes and migraines and you very well may develop diabetes. The most common hormone-blocker for men is spironolactone, which can cause kidney problems and potentially increase your potassium levels so that your heart stops beating. In all this, I am just describing what is known. The long term effects are currently unknown. And I am only speaking of HRT, not cutting into the body with surgery.
Tim took these hormones for a while and went through all this. He also came to realize that one of the biggest changes happening was to his wallet. Because there are so many risks, blood tests and doctor visits must be frequent and regular. Someone has to pay for these visits, tests and the hormones themselves, which is why the fight is so bloody to make sex change part of health care coverage. (Looking for a lucrative industry to get into? Look no further.) Still a good part of Tim’s paycheck went to his HRT. And it would have to continue for the
rest of his natural life. These guys become like that guy in the 2012 Bourne movie, The Bourne Legacy, who needed a chemical fix every so often or else he would revert back to…well, to himself.
Worst of all, Tim came to realize that it wasn’t working. Choosing to be like a woman wasn’t solving his inner turmoil. He eventually stopped and tried to puzzle out his life with his now permanently damaged body.
Is this really therapy?
Is this the path to which you want to guide the gender dysphoric?