Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

Many claim that puberty suppression is an unsafe and unnecessary treatment for transgender adolescents to leverage support for limiting policies for gender-affirming care. This review establishes an overview of research on puberty blockers to evaluate the treatment’s effectiveness and risks for gender dysphoric adolescents. Studies confirmed the necessity of puberty-blocking treatment after discovering that gender dysphoric individuals who do not receive treatment are significantly more likely to have suicidal ideation compared to individuals who have received treatment. Studies also found that puberty blockers are effective in reaching their desired functions as they lower the need for gender-affirming hormones, slow the development of secondary characteristics, and surpass their expected effective durations. Puberty blockers only posed a few serious risks to the individual's health, mainly a risk to bone health. However, most studies have not been able to define the severity of this risk to the individual's health. While more longitudinal research should be done to assess the severity of these risks, it is clear that banning access to this treatment is not the best approach forward. Understanding the implications of existing empirical data is crucial to preventing policies from further harming transgender adolescents by basing policies on misinformation or misinterpretations of existing research.