Elon Musk’s trans daughter took puberty blockers: What are they?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has caused a stir with his remarks on his estranged trans daughter, Vivian Wilson, in a recent two-hour conversation with controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson. The billionaire claimed he had been “tricked” into signing paperwork that allowed Vivian to take puberty blockers.

Referring to her with male pronouns, Musk said his “son” had been (figuratively) “killed” by “the woke mind virus”. Vivian has now shot back, saying she had “disowned him, not the other way around”. In 2022, she filed a request to legally change her name from Xavier to Vivian and to adopt the surname of her mother, Justine Wilson. “I no longer want to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” Vivian had reportedly said.

Musk’s comments have ignited a conversation about puberty blockers. What are they? Let’s understand.

What are puberty blockers?

Puberty blockers are used to delay the transformation that comes with puberty in transgender and gender-diverse youth.

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These medications are called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues.

During puberty, a child’s body goes through physical changes that make them attain sexual maturity and become capable of reproduction. This is marked by the brain sending hormonal signals to the gonads – ovaries in females and testicles in males.

Speaking to CNN, Dr Michelle Forcier, a professor of paediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Rhode Island, explained, “Puberty blockers are sort of like a man-made hormone analogue, and basically what they do is fool the brain into not sending messages to the ovaries and testes to secrete hormones.”

Forcier added, “The brain thinks it’s got enough hormones and doesn’t message the ovaries and testes to get to work. And so, the ovaries and testes kind of just rest or go to sleep until the brain gland wakes up again and tells them, ‘Time to secrete hormones.’”

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Who is it prescribed for?

Teens who have gender dysphoria are prescribed puberty blockers, which pause puberty-related changes in the body and give them time to think about their gender identity.

“Gender dysphoria is the distress that occurs when your sex assigned at birth does not match your gender identity,” as per Cleveland Clinic.

Dr Subhash Kumar Wangnoo, senior consultant, endocrinologist, and diabetologist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, told Indian Express, “When a teen has gender dysphoria, a condition in which they are conflicted between the gender assigned at birth and the gender they want to assume, the medication is prescribed to pause sex hormones.”

Experts say the biological changes in adolescents questioning their gender assigned at birth could cause distress and worsen their mental health.

It can “create massive dysphoria, depression, suicidality and a whole bunch of other poor health outcomes,” Forcier told CNN. The puberty blockers “prevent permanent changes that we can’t necessarily fix or eradicate in the future. We can’t go backwards, but at least everything (pauses) where it is,” she added.

The puberty blockers stop the body from producing sex hormones. In people assigned male at birth, the medications can temporarily halt voice deepening, growth of facial hair, and arrest the growth of the testes or penis.

For those assigned female at birth, puberty blockers stop the development of breasts and menstruation.

Doctors also prescribe puberty blockers during precocious puberty when a child’s body starts changing into that of an adult too soon. For girls, it is before the age of eight, and, for boys, the onset of puberty is before the age of nine.

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How does it help?

These drugs help in improving the mental well-being of transgender and gender-diverse youth tackling gender dysphoria.

As per Mayo Clinic, puberty blockers can ease anxiety and depression, improve social interactions, and keep away thoughts or actions of self-harm. It can also prevent the need for future gender-affirming surgeries .

“However, taking puberty blockers alone, without other medical or behavioural treatment, might not be enough to ease gender dysphoria. Parental consent is needed for drug use,” Wangnoo told Indian Express.

Are puberty blockers safe?

Experts say puberty blockers are safe. Dr Lauren Wilson, a pediatric hospitalist in the United States, told CNN that these medications have proved “highly safe and effective”.

However, there are some side effects associated with the medication.

“The use of puberty blockers in any child or adolescent is associated with a risk of decrease in bone density, because bone mineralisation increases with puberty hormones. But when the medication is stopped and puberty resumes or other hormone treatments are started, bone mineralisation normalises,” Wilson said.

As per Mayo Clinic, side effects could also include weight gain, hot flashes, headaches and shifts in mood.

Experts also say there is a risk of infertility if children directly go from puberty blockers to hormone therapy, reported CNN.

In May this year, the United Kingdom banned private clinics from prescribing puberty blockers to children under 18. The emergency ban, which will last until September, has been challenged in court.

With inputs from agencies