Preventive (Gender) Medicine

"In His Image" Packs a Compassionate, Megadose of Gender Reality

Trans activists at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) have laid out a four-step standard of care for children experiencing gender dysphoria. It can begin when a child is as young as age two or three, and it goes like this:

1. Social transition. If the child is persistent, insistent, and consistent about being a member of the opposite sex, then they should be treated as if they are the opposite sex. If the child wants a new name, a new wardrobe, or access to opposite sex bathrooms or activities, it should be granted.
2. Puberty blockage. At or before the onset of puberty, puberty blocking hormones should be administered.
3. Cross-Sex Hormones. After a year or so of puberty-blockers, the child should receive high doses of opposite sex hormones – testosterone (for girls) or estrogen (for boys) to induce traits associated with the opposite sex, such as a deeper voice and facial hair in the case of a female to male transition.
4. Surgery. The unwanted sex organs should be removed, which will also require additional surgical alterations, such as rerouting of urinary tracts. Finally, artificial constructions resembling the opposite sex organs should then be implanted or attached.

So say the experts. Four steps, and voila! Modern medicine will make the dysphoric soul whole. That’s the message being sold on children at younger and younger ages.

“Sebastian” is a believer. Filled with exuberant hope, the cute, seemingly happy-go-lucky redheaded adolescent made a video as he was finishing up Step Two, a year of puberty blockers (Sebastian is a girl who identifies as a man, but for the sake of letting this play out, I’ll refer to Sebastian as a he). Here are a few things he knows about his treatment:

• He gets a shot every three months.
• The medicine in it is called Lupron.
• It comes in a syringe with an 18-guage needle, which is “thick as s*** and long as hell and hurts like a b****.”
• The syringe comes preloaded as part liquid and part powder, and the combination blocks his body’s natural production of estrogen.

Here are some things he says he doesn’t know:

• Who is paying for all of it.
• What the Lupron actually is. He calls it “mega birth control because it stops your period and everything else.”

“I don’t know anything. I’m just a child,” he says flippantly. But not getting your period? “I’m just like, yesss, no period … it’s like a blessed day!”

Here are a few more things he probably doesn’t know and doesn’t know that he doesn’t know.

• Potential side effects of Lupron include irregular heartbeat; trouble breathing; bone, muscle, or joint pain; nausea; hot flashes; altered mental states; testicular cancer (in boys); and bone loss and vaginal bleeding and discharge in girls (so much for not getting your period).
• Potential risks of cross-sex hormones include cardiac disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, breast cancer, stroke, and liver dysfunction.
• Once the Lupron and testosterone are combined, Sebastian will be sterile.

Sebastian is super excited about all this, but any “Do no harm” adult should know, this is medicine that is, at best, unproven. At worst, it’s organized child abuse.

I was a redheaded adolescent, too, when I first got my period. I hated everything about it. Trans was not a thing then, but I remember thinking how great it would be to just have my uterus removed. That would be like, “yesss!” Who cares about never having children? Just make these things happening in my body stop happening! I cannot put into words how grateful I am now that transgenderism wasn’t the rage then. I’m fairly confident I would have been susceptible to the lure of trying to “become” something other than what I actually was, which was a female going through an awkward phase of life.

But while the awkwardness of childhood and adolescence is normal and temporary, the gender activists are prescribing a “solution” that is permanent and life-altering.

Fortunately, some courageous adults are coming forward to say that the “solution” was worse than the condition it was concocted to treat. Walt Heyer launched www.sexchangeregret.com after transitioning from male to female and then detransitioning eight years later. He created it to reach out to people who were considering detransitioning, but it has since grown into a repository of compassionate, reality-based help for the gender dysphoric and those who love them.  

To hear him tell his story and for more reality-based help, make time to watch the film, In His Image. Produced by American Family Studios, it is an excellent resource for helping gender realists prepare to compassionately engage with gender ideology and the gender dysphoric in a way that affirms their humanity, dignity, and embodied reality.

When it comes to gender confusion, an ounce of truth could prevent a lifetime of regret. Click here to stream In His Image at home free, get the DVD, or (best!) host a screening event in your church or community.