Which article? The OP was a video, and a few people have posted some links.
If you're referring to the article I posted, it notes
In Europe political divisions on this topic aren’t nearly as conspicuous as they are in the U.S. Rather, the debate is much more fact-based. An increasing number of countries have conducted systematic reviews of evidence to determine the benefits and risks of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. And the findings from these reviews—that the certainty of benefits is “very low”—have informed changes in policy regarding treatment of gender incongruence in minors. While European health authorities aren’t instituting bans on treatment, currently minors in six European countries—Norway, U.K. Sweden, Denmark, France and Finland—can access puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones only if they meet strict eligibility requirements, usually in the context of a tightly controlled research setting.
Unlike Europe, there doesn’t appear to be a middle ground in the U.S. Instead the discussion on trans care for youth is polarized, with dueling diametrically opposed viewpoints. It’s either provide access to a full set of services, including pharmaceutical interventions, without reservation and cite existing evidence as if it’s settled science, or prohibit therapy entirely.
Yes, it’s allowed, if strict eligibility requirements are met… That is no different than what we do here.
That's a far cry from what we see in the US, where we have major organizations advertising things like this:
What to expect on your first visit for gender affirming hormone therapy.
www.plannedparenthood.org
"In most cases your clinician will be able to prescribe hormones the same day as your first visit. No letter from a mental health provider is required."
That doesn’t mean it’s your first visit overall to screen if you’re a a candidate for gender affirming care, it’s your first visit for hormone therapy. I can’t even hormones for menopause after only one visit and referral, but you think you can call a doctor and say “I want hormones for gender transition, I’m under 18, and I want to answer no questions about it” and the doctor says “ok cool, how’s Thursday?” LoL! The link even says they meet with you to get your medical history, then you meet again for labs, then you go for the hormone therapy.
Like for real, I’m in my early 40s, my youngest is in high school, they’ve tracked my train wreck periods since I was 18, was diagnosed with severe endo in my late 30s, I even bled onto the chair while at the doctors office while getting diagnosed. I wanted a balloon ablation and a hysterectomy. It took me 5 visits over a year to get the ablation, now I’m on month 14 of proving I should get a hysterectomy. Why? Because, even in my early/mid 40s my doctor wants to make sure I really mean it when I say I want one and won’t regret it later, lol.
This wild timeline where a 40-something woman can’t get a hysterectomy, much less a 20 year old one, but gender transitions on somebody under 18? Prep them for surgery, LoL! My two kids had ingrown toenails that were actively infected, and that took 3 appointments, one with a PCP for a referral, one with the podiatrist for a diagnosis, and one a week later to have it yoinked. And that’s a toenail anybody can look at and see is infected.
Planned Parenthood isn't some po-dunk rogue clinic operating out of a strip mall, it's a major healthcare organization in the US. And they're touting the fact that you can get hormones on your first visit without a referral from a mental healthcare provider. That's the opposite of the approach that the European countries have reverted back to involving strict controls and eligibility requirements.
Because to get that appointment, you need a referral, which means there is no need for you to get a letter because they already have a referral because you’re already getting treatment. For my gyno stuff, I don’t need to get a letter… That’s what the referral is for. My anti-anxiety and anti-depressants? I don’t need to bring a letter to get them prescribed, either. The doctor I’m seeing for mental health support while dealing with a life-altering disease told my PCP she was prescribing them and I was to follow up with the PCP. It’s 2024, nobody has to get a letter from a doctor to see another doctor because that’s what a referral system is for. Somebody else, a doctor or your insurance, already did the legwork making any letter unnecessary.
US organizations (on this matter) are operating way outside of the acceptable boundaries of nations like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
As I noted before, US progressives seem to have the position of "whatever the MAGA people say, we need to find a way to be radically opposite of them at all costs...if they say boiling water is hot, we need to find a reason why it's actually cold, or clutter up the argument with vague, abstract concepts about heat being just a construct". Perhaps the fact that the aforementioned Nordic countries don't have as many "MAGA people" to agitate, means the progressives living over there are able to look at the matter a little more clearly without political argumentativeness as a disrupting factor.
I’m sure I don’t know why you assume I’m a “progressive,” or why I care what “Nordic countries” are doing, or why either of those things are remotely relevant to the discussion. Europe has different medical standards than the US. This is not a surprise. That doesn’t mean they are better, it doesn’t mean they are worse, it just means they have different standards. A med that would change my life isn’t prescribed for what I need it for in the US, so I can’t get it, and because it costs $40k every 4 weeks, I can’t pay for it. In Europe, it is available in the application I need it for and 7 out of 10 people who get it have my very same medical condition. And where it costs the most is France and England, with an average cost of $200. Do you know how many stem cell-derived meds they have available in Europe that aren’t available here? Tons.
I think a lot of this pearl-clutching “won’t somebody think of the children” hysteria is born of people who don’t have an understanding of what the gender transition process entails, how long it takes, and how hard it is to get, much less for anybody under 18. I also tend to suspect that they have very limited experience with any sort of long-term, maintained treatment for a sustained issue. 11 months ago my endo caused sepsis which landed me in the hospital for almost 2 weeks. They opened me up, saw the problem, identified it, took pictures (which I have, lol), and even seeing it was my ovaries and uterus and even though the last thing I said to everybody in earshot was I wanted a hysterectomy as long as they were doing laparoscopic surgery, they didn’t do it. When I asked why, the doctor said he knew I wanted one, but he wasn’t sure if I “meant it.” He told me he “very nearly did it,” but held off “just in case.” Like I said, we are now at month 14 and I’m just now hearing “maybe we should do a hysterectomy…”
But we are supposed to believe for gender issues, doctors just throw medications around like confetti, don’t follow up, and do same-day transition surgery with no due diligence on the under 18 crowd. The podiatrist asks for permission to give a local anesthetic for my 17 year old and has a 2 week, 4 week, 6 week follow up schedule for taking off a toenail, but the gender surgery people just run through the hospital, indiscriminately performing transitions on people without any other treatment.
LoL, ok.
