My Trans-Parenting Journey: About Puberty Blockers
And the painfully long “pause” period
Not too long ago, we hit the one year mark of our thirteen year old transgender child being on puberty blockers. This season in the lives of trans youth is sometimes referred to as the “pause period,” because it’s quite literally like pressing a pause button.
Puberty blockers (or just ‘blockers’) are Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists used to temporarily inhibit or surpress puberty. Historically, blockers have been used in treating precocious puberty, but more recently, doctors have found them extremely beneficial in treating gender dysphoria in trans-identified youth.
Gender dysphoria, as defined in the DSM-V, is a condition in which a person has marked incongruence between their expressed or experienced gender and their biological sex assigned at birth, and causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning. Typically, the onset of puberty worsens the emotional distress and anxiety of gender dysphoria in trans youth.
Simply put, puberty blockers present an option to put a pause on the development of unwanted secondary sexual characteristics in trans-identified youth until they are older. Further, blockers allow future trans men and trans…
