Italian psychoanalysts: stop puberty blockers

The Italian Psychoanalytic Society criticises puberty blockers for children: dangerous and experimental treatment. And joins gender critical feminists and parents in calling for scientific data and a public debate on the best treatment for children suffering from gender dysphoria
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For years we gender critical feminists have been fighting against the scandal of the medicalisation of children in the name of gender identity. And for years we have been branded as fascists, reactionaries, bigots.

Today, finally, an accredited Italian scientific society, the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI), is taking a stand, joining us in raising a cry of alarm: the use of puberty blockers is an experimental treatment that has no solid scientific basis, and causes serious side effects. Above all, in most cases prepubertal gender dysphoria -if children are not medicalised- resolves itself after entering puberty.

This was written by psychoanalyst and SPI president Sarantis Thanopulos to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, hoping that 'a rigorous scientific discussion, to which the Italian Psychoanalytic Society will gladly contribute, will also be launched in our country'.

The letter from the Italian Psychoanalytic Society is consistent with the critical stance towards puberty blockers expressed by experts and scientific societies worldwide: We have already told you about paediatrician Hilary Cass' investigation in the UK (here), guidelines for the treatment of children with gender dysphoria in Sweden, Norway and Finland (here e here), the case of American College of Pediatricians v. Biden (here), proposed legislation in some American states (here) and the situation in Australia (here), etc.

In Italy, on the other hand, we are far behind: We still do not even have data on how many minors are being treated with puberty blockers, nor do we know in detail the protocols that are applied.

And only last year the Italian Society of Paediatrics (SIP) guaranteed that the effects of puberty blockers were 'completely reversible', citing as a source the WPATH, an American 'transgender health' association that ideologically promotes medical and surgical transition (we told you about it here).

It is time to examine the phenomenon of minors with gender dysphoria, and how they are treated in our hospitals, starting with data and a scientific evaluation without ideologies.

Here is the full text of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society's letter to Giorgia Meloni.

Gli psicoanalisti italiani: stop ai puberty blockers

Ill.ma Presidente del Consiglio Giorgia Meloni,

The executive of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society expresses great concern about the use of drugs aimed at producing an arrest of pubertal development in boys of both sexes who have been diagnosed with 'gender dysphoria', i.e. not recognising themselves as their biological sex.

Contraindications to this treatment must be seriously considered:

  • The diagnosis of 'gender dysphoria' in prepubertal age is based on the statements of the individuals concerned and cannot be carefully assessed as long as the development of sexual identity is still in progress.
  • Only a minority of boys who state that they do not identify with their sex confirm this position in adolescence, after puberty.
  • Suspending or preventing a subject's psychosexual development pending the maturation of a stable identity definition is contradictory to the fact that this development is a central factor in the definition process.
  • Even in cases where the declared 'gender dysphoria' in prepuberty is confirmed in adolescence, the developmental arrest cannot result in a body that is sexually different from the original one. The sexual development of one's own body even when it contradicts an opposite internal orientation allows an erotic fulfilment that a 'blocked' or manipulated body does not offer.

The current experimentation eludes careful scientific evaluation accompanied by in-depth reflection on psychic development and gives rise to serious perplexity. It is important to initiate a rigorous scientific discussion on the issue of boys with gender problems, to which the Italian Psychoanalytic Society will gladly contribute.

On behalf of the Executive of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society

The President

Sarantis Thanopulos


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