Psychological Outcomes of 12-15-Year-Olds with Gender Dysphoria Receiving Pubertal Suppression in the UK: Assessing Reliable and Clinically Significant Change.

The evidence base for psychological benefits of GnRHA for adolescents with gender dysphoria (GD) was deemed "low quality" by the UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. Limitations identified include inattention to clinical importance of findings. This secondary analysis of UK clinical study data uses Reliable and Clinically Significant Change approaches to address this gap. The original uncontrolled study collected data within a specialist GD service. Participants were 44 12-15-year-olds with GD. Puberty was suppressed using "triptorelin"; participants were followed-up for 36 months. Secondary analysis used data from parent-report Child Behavior Checklists and Youth Self-Report forms. Reliable change results: 15-34% of participants reliably deteriorated depending on the subscale, time point and parent versus child report. Clinically significant change results: 27-58% were in the borderline (subclinical) or clinical range at baseline (depending on subscale and parent or child report). Rates of clinically significant change ranged from 0 to 35%, decreasing over time toward zero on both self-report and parent-report. The approach offers an established complementary method to analyze individual level change and to examine who might benefit or otherwise from treatment in a field where research designs have been challenged by lack of control groups and low sample sizes.

Puberty Suppression for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria and the Child's Right to an Open Future.

In this essay, we consider the clinical and ethical implications of puberty blockers for pediatric gender dysphoria through the lens of "the child's right to an open future," which refers to rights that children do not have the capacity to exercise as minors, but that must be protected, so they can exercise them in the future as autonomous adults. We contrast the open future principle with the beliefs underpinning the gender affirming care model and discuss implications for consent. We evaluate claims that puberty blockers are reversible, discuss the scientific uncertainty about long-term benefits and harms, summarize international developments, and examine how suicide has been used to frame puberty suppression as a medically necessary, lifesaving treatment. In discussing these issues, we include relevant empirical evidence and raise questions for clinicians and researchers. We conclude that treatment pathways that delay decisions about medical transition until the child has had the chance to grow and mature into an autonomous adulthood would be most consistent with the open future principle.

[Beyond NICE: Updated Systematic Review on the Current Evidence of Using Puberty Blocking Pharmacological Agents and Cross-Sex-Hormones in Minors with Gender Dysphoria]. / Beyond NICE: Aktualisierte systematische Übersicht zur Evidenzlage der Pubertätsblockade und Hormongabe bei Minderjährigen mit Geschlechtsdysphorie.

Beyond NICE: Updated Systematic Review on the Current Evidence of Using Puberty Blocking Pharmacological Agents and Cross-Sex-Hormones in Minors with Gender Dysphoria Abstract: Objective: The suppression of physiological puberty using puberty-blocking pharmacological agents (PB) and prescribing cross-sex hormones (CSH) to minors with gender dysphoria (GD) is a current matter of discussion, and in some cases, PB and CSH are used in clinical practice for this particular population. Two systematic reviews (one on PB, one on CSH treatment) by the British National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) from 2020 indicated no clear clinical benefit of such treatments regarding critical outcome variables. In particular, these two systematic NICE reviews on the use of PB and CSH in minors with GD detected no clear improvements of GD symptoms. Moreover, the overall scientific quality of the available evidence, as discussed within the above-mentioned two NICE reviews, was classified as "very low certainty" regarding modified GRADE criteria. Method: The present systematic review presents an updated literature search on this particular topic (use of PB and CSH in minors with GD) following NICE principles and PICO criteria for all relevant new original research studies published since the release of the two above-mentioned NICE reviews (updated literature search period was July 2020-August 2023). Results: The newly conducted literature search revealed no newly published original studies targeting NICE-defined critical and important outcomes and the related use of PB in minors with GD following PICO criteria. For CSH treatment, we found two new studies that met PICO criteria, but these particular two studies had low participant numbers, yielded no significant additional clear evidence for specific and clearly beneficial effects of CSH in minors with GD, and could be classified as "low certainty" tfollowing modified GRADE criteria. Conclusions: The currently available studies on the use of PB and CSH in minors with GD have significant conceptual and methodological flaws. The available evidence on the use of PB and CSH in minors with GD is very limited and based on only a few studies with small numbers, and these studies have problematic methodology and quality. There also is a lack of adequate and meaningful long-term studies. Current evidence doesn't suggest that GD symptoms and mental health significantly improve when PB or CSH are used in minors with GD. Psychotherapeutic interventions to address and reduce the experienced burden can become relevant in children and adolescents with GD. If the decision to use PB and/or CSH is made on an individual case-by-case basis and after a complete and thorough mental health assessment, potential treatment of possibly co-occurring mental health problems as well as after a thoroughly conducted and carefully executed individual risk-benefit evaluation, doing so as part of clinical studies or research projects, as currently done in England, can be of value in terms of generation of new research data. The electronic supplement (ESM) 1 is an adapted and abreviated English version of this work.

Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender dysphoria: an emerging issue with multiple implications.

Controversy exists over puberty suppression (PS) in adolescents with gender dysphoria (GD). PS is preferentially achieved with GnRH analogues. By preventing the development of secondary sex characteristics, PS may improve psychological functioning, well-being, quality of life, emotional and behavioral (especially internalizing) problems and depressive symptoms, thus decreasing suicidality. PS can also extend the diagnostic period and give transgender adolescents time to explore their gender identity. GnRHa may also decrease the need for feminization/masculinization surgery. However, 2-year treatment with GnRHa may result in bone mass accrual retardation (decrease in BMD/BMAD z-scores), growth velocity deceleration (decrease in height SDS), increase in fat mass, temporary pause in oocyte/sperm maturation. The most common side effects of GnRHa are hot flashes, mood fluctuations, fatigue and headache. They are usually mild and rarely lead to GnRHa discontinuation. Based on current scientific evidence, PS could be recommended to adolescents who meet the diagnostic criteria of gender incongruence (by DSM-5 and/or ICD-11) and have long-lasting intense GD, which aggravates with puberty onset. Before initiating PS, possible mental issues should be addressed and informed consent (by the adolescent/caregiver) should be given, after counseling on probable reproductive effects of GnRHa. GnRHa can only be started after the adolescent has entered Tanner stage 2. Nevertheless, published studies are inadequate in number, small in size, uncontrolled and relatively short-term, so that it is difficult to draw safe conclusions on efficacy and safety of GnRHa. Large long-term randomized controlled trials are needed to expand knowledge on this controversial issue and elucidate the benefit and risks of PS.

Time Course of Body Composition Changes in Transgender Adolescents During Puberty Suppression and Sex Hormone Treatment.

CONTEXT: Transgender adolescents can undergo puberty suppression (PS) and subsequent gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) but little information is available on the expected rate of physical changes. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the time course of body composition changes during PS and GAHT. METHODS: In this study, retrospective data of 380 trans boys and 168 trans girls treated with PS prior to GAHT from a gender identity clinic were included. Total lean and fat mass Z-scores using birth-assigned sex as reference were determined using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: In trans boys, lean mass Z-scores decreased (-0.32, 95% CI -0.41; -0.23) and fat mass Z-scores increased (0.31, 95% CI 0.21; 0.41) in the first year of PS and remained stable thereafter. Lean mass Z-scores increased (0.92, 95% CI 0.81; 1.04) and fat mass Z-scores decreased (-0.43, 95% CI -0.57; -0.29) only during the first year of testosterone,. In trans girls, both lean and fat mass Z-scores gradually changed over 3 years of PS (respectively -1.13, 95% CI -1.29; -0.98 and 1.06, 95% CI 0.90; 1.23). In the first year of GAHT, lean mass Z-scores decreased (-0.19, 95% CI -0.36; -0.03) while fat mass Z-scores remained unchanged after 3 years (-0.02, 95% CI -0.20; 0.16). CONCLUSION: Compared with peers, trans girls experienced ongoing lean mass decrease and fat mass increase during 3 years of PS while in trans boys smaller changes were observed that stabilized after 1 year. A large increase in lean mass Z-scores occurred only during the first year of testosterone treatment. In trans girls, body composition changed only slightly during GAHT. This information can improve counseling about treatment effects.

Psicologia e políticas de saúde da população trans: encruzilhadas, disputas e porosidades / Psychology and trans populations health policies: crossroads, disputes and porosities / Psicología y políticas de salud da población trans: encrucijadas, disputas y porosidades

Este texto se propõe a compor uma reflexão sobre algumas fronteiras que atravessam a Psicologia quando posta em contato com as demandas dos segmentos trans e com a operacionalização de políticas de saúde para este segmento. Um rápido levantamento das políticas de saúde nos possibilita entender como suas construções apontam diferentes entendimentos tanto sobre a própria experiência trans quanto sobre as dinâmicas de poder que instituem a norma cisgênera como centralidade e régua a partir da qual são medidas as experiências. A ambiguidade posta é atentar que na medida em que garantir o acesso universalizado aos serviços, bem como amplificar sua oferta, é necessidade a ser pautada com urgências, as práticas cotidianas dos profissionais destes espaços vai produzir o tom de toda a política, marcando esta como emancipatória e acolhedora ou como apenas mais um reforço das normas da cisgeneridade naturalizada e compulsória. A Psicologia, aqui cremos, ocupa um lugar estratégico dada a sua produção enquanto campo que afirma as autodeterminações de gênero e se capilariza nos mais diversos nichos do sistema de saúde, inclusive na atenção básica. Por fim, atentar para as normas que atravessam a proposição e efetivação das políticas de saúde para a população trans é exercício fundamental para que possamos estabelecer práticas despatologizantes e finalmente abdicar da produção constante de "especialistas" imbuídos por um conjunto de relações de poder, de dizer sobre o outro suas supostas verdades, produzindo exclusões das vivências que não caibam nos restritos manuais biomédicos.(AU)

This text proposes to compose a reflection about some frontiers that cross the psychology when put in contact with the demands of the trans segments and with the operationalization of health policies for this segment. A rapid survey of health policies enables us to understand how their constructions point to different understandings both of the trans experience itself and of the power dynamics that establish the cisgender norm as the centrality and rule from which the experiences are measured. The ambiguity posed is that to the extent that guaranteeing universalized access to services, as well as amplifying their offer is a necessity to be ruled with urgencies, the daily practices of professionals of these spaces will produce the tone of the whole policy, marking this as emancipatory and welcoming or just another reinforcement of the norms of naturalized and compulsory cisgenerity. Psychology, here we believe, occupies a strategic place given its production as a field that affirms the self-determination of gender and capillarizes itself in the most diverse niches of the health system, including basic attention. Finally, attention to the norms that cross the proposition and effectiveness of health policies for the trans people is a fundamental exercise so that we can establish depathologizing practices and finally abdicate the constant production of "specialists" imbued by a set of relations of power, of telling others about their supposed truths, producing exclusions from experiences that do not fit in the restricted biomedical manuals.(AU)

Este texto intenta componer una reflexión sobre algunos límites que cruzan la psicología cuando está en contacto con las demandas de los segmentos trans y la operacionalización de las políticas de salud para este segmento. Una encuesta rápida de las políticas de salud nos permite comprender cómo sus construcciones apuntan a diferentes interpretaciones tanto de la experiencia trans en sí como de la dinámica de poder que instituye la norma cisgénero como la centralidad y la regla a partir de la cual se miden las experiencias. La ambigüedad planteada es tener en cuenta que, en la medida en que se garantiza el acceso universalizado a los servicios, así como ampliar su oferta, es una necesidad que debe regirse con urgencia, las prácticas diarias de los profesionales de estos espacios marcarán el tono de toda la política, marcando esto como emancipatorio y acogedor o simplemente como un refuerzo de las normas de cisgeneridad naturalizada y obligatoria. La Psicología, aquí creemos, ocupa un lugar estratégico dada su producción como un campo que afirma las autodeterminaciones de género y se capilariza en los nichos más diversos del sistema de salud, incluida la atención primaria. Finalmente, prestar atención a las reglas que cruzan la propuesta y la implementación de políticas de salud para la población trans es un ejercicio fundamental para nosotros para establecer prácticas de despatologización y finalmente abdicar de la producción constante de "especialistas" imbuidos por un conjunto de relaciones de poder, contar sobre el otro sus supuestas verdades, produciendo exclusiones de experiencias que no se ajustan a los manuales biomédicos restringidos.(AU)