We have had several supporters share their submissions and ideas on the Consultation on safety measures for the use of puberty blockers in young people with gender-related health needs.
This author kindly agreed to let us share her contribution...this is exactly what was sent to the Ministry of Health earlier this month.
January 2025
I am writing this submission as I have an interest in puberty blockers, stemming from my own experience of gender dysphoria. I suffered from gender dysphoria from age five or six until after puberty. I live in New Zealand.
I am happy for my submission to be published with any personal information removed.
If it is subject to an OIA request then any personal information should be removed also.
I am writing this submission because my own experiences growing up with gender dysphoria are relevant when considering treatment for this condition.
About me
I’m a woman. I grew up in Wellington, I was the youngest child in my family and from very early on I wanted to be a boy. My friends were boys, I played with “boy’s” toys, I pulled things apart, I hated dresses, I hated dolls, I thought my sister was dumb, I climbed trees and convinced my parents and siblings to call me by a boy’s name, though family occasions where I was expected to be a girl were difficult and we fought. The rest of the time I was very often mistaken for a boy and I loved it. If I had been given the chance to be a boy I would have grabbed it in a heartbeat. I had a strong athletic build and this suited my desire to be a boy.
As I grew up and my body began to change I wished desperately that it wouldn’t. I chose clothes that hid my body but it became harder and harder to pass as a boy.
I was aware around this time that I wanted girls to think I was a boy because I wanted them to like me in the same way they liked boys. By 13 or 14 I was aware that I was attracted to girls - that I was same-sex attracted. I then discovered that there were other girls who liked girls - and that I didn’t need to be a boy in order for girls to find me attractive.
Over the years I grew to like my female body and understood that sex stereotypes were there to be broken. I grew into a gender non-conforming adult and a lesbian. I have children and a happy relationship.
So, what is my interest in puberty blockers?
I have followed the arrival of gender ideology with interest. My first thoughts were that the children who were supposedly transitioning and seeking puberty blockers and wrong-sex hormones must be suffering from a dysphoria that was much more severe than my own, but when I read their stories and watched TV documentaries, I was quite surprised to find that their experiences were similar to mine, in some cases less dysphoric. So I have read and read and watched and listened and I am 100% convinced that had I been born in 2005 rather than 1970, I would have been told that it was possible to change sex and also told that puberty blockers were a tool to help me. I would have been right into the concept of being born in the wrong body.
My parents would have wanted to do what was best for me. They would have listened to health professionals and would have been my fiercest advocates. We will never know what they would have done had my school and / or doctor recommended puberty blockers, but I suspect they are happy they didn’t have to decide, and maybe they think about that when they see their grandchildren. The grandchildren they wouldn’t have if I had received gender affirming care as a child.
But I (and my parents) have the luxury of being able to look back at my six year old self, or my ten year old self - and I know what happened through and after puberty. I know that my feelings about my body changed and I know that I grew into a healthy gender non-conforming lesbian. I know that even though at age ten the idea of having children was quite disgusting, by the time I was an adult I had different ideas. I couldn’t have known this at six, or ten, or even 16.
Our Ministry of Health is deciding whether to continue to allow the use of an off-label drug, a drug with no evidence of its safety, its reversibility or its effectiveness. For what? And why? Why, when there are safe, reversible, tested and effective alternatives available? Why are we even having this conversation??
The Alternatives
For a long time, without knowing it, society has been running a world-wide, all inclusive clinical trial on every single child suffering from gender dysphoria. There are thousands of women in NZ just like me, many are gender non-conforming, many are lesbians. We all suffered from dysphoria and we all found that puberty, as hard as it was, helped us discover who we were. The same is true for men, they have mostly grown up into gay men.
Without realising it, we have provided a huge evidence base for what happens when you don’t lie to children by telling them they can change sex, and you don’t prescribe puberty blockers.
So here is what we should do;
Stop telling children they are born in the wrong body. They aren’t.
Stop telling children (and adults) they can change sex. It is a lie. They can’t, and when the reality of this hits them it is tragic.
Take puberty blockers off the table, they are a medical scandal.
Stress to children and young people that puberty is hard but is unavoidable.
Provide care for dysphoric children and young people that recognises reality while helping them love the body they have.
Many of these children will grow into healthy and productive same-sex attracted adults. Celebrate them for that.
Urgently look at the similarities between eating disorders and rapid onset gender dysphoria.
Urgently investigate why so many young women are terrified of the way their body is changing, see if there are links to pornography, misogyny and homophobia. Spoiler alert, there are.
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