Exploring the Dark History of Hormone Blockers

A Midwestern Doctor

Originally Published: March 17, 2024

Providing transgendered children “puberty blockers” is currently one of the most controversial areas in medicine (e.g., liberal colleagues of mine have publicly protested Republican state governments banning the practice).

What I find remarkable about this entire debate is how little knowledge exists about the safety of these drugs. For instance, when I’ve asked my liberal colleagues if they are aware of the dangers of these drugs, they genuinely share that they were not aware they had any clinically significant side effects.

Given that the hormonal blockers are amongst the most dangerous drugs on the market, I feel it is important to review all the people who have been harmed by them, and the scandalous 40 year saga that has allowed them to be unjustifiably used for a wide range of medical conditions.

How Hormonal Blockers Work

There are a variety of ways you can block the production of hormones in the body. Since the signal to produce sex hormones (e.g., estrogen and testosterone) begins in the brain, cutting that signal off mostly eliminates the body’s production of hormones. The most powerful hormonal blockers, the GnRH agonists, work by overstimulating the brain’s GnRH receptors so that they becomes “burned out” and no longer respond to the natural release of GnRH in the body, thereby short-circuiting the body’s production of sex hormones (which in many cases is a permanent short-c).

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