It is in cases like these, usually, that medical intervention may be sought: it is possible to arrest a child’s puberty through the use of drugs to suppress the release of sex hormones. Puberty blockers have been used since the 1970s to treat precocious puberty, a natural variation that causes some children to start puberty early, but which can cause restricted height in adulthood and result in social stigma, bullying and distress from being visibly ‘out of step’ with peers. In their more recent use for children with gender dysphoria (in Britain, from the 1990s onwards), blockers are primarily
...more
