Who needs puberty?

The cavalier attitude of trans activists.

Nine days ago, Green MP Benjamin Doyle (he of the dodgy Instagram account) was basking in self-righteousness as he spoke at a parliamentary protest calling for “puberty blockers on demand.”

“How dare they attempt to deny children health care? How dare they? Access to health care is a human right, period,” he said.

Source: Queer Endurance in Defiance facebook page.

Doyle likes to present himself as a caring and progressive person, but this ignorant and cavalier attitude towards the future health of children demonstrates he is precisely the opposite.

Let’s look more closely at what he and the other protesters are calling for.

“Puberty blockers and HRT, over the counter and for free”, chanted the crowd.

So, what they seek is for any unhappy child to be able to go into a pharmacy and be given a powerful drug that stops their natural development. Or any unhappy teenager to demand opposite sex hormones despite the known damage they cause in a body for which the hormones were not intended.

Doyle and his fellow trans activists say that ‘transgender children’ should be able to go through the ‘right’ puberty. But the only ‘right’ puberty is the natural one launched by a person’s own body.

Source: Frontiers for young minds.

Puberty is initiated by the hypothalamus that directs the pituitary to release LH (luteinising hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone). These two hormones trigger the production of testosterone and oestrogen, which in turn cause changes to the body, brain, and establish sexual attraction.

Without LH or FSH, normal development does not start and the teen will remain childlike – small, docile, and without feeling any sexual attraction.

Watch this Genspect video “Stopping Puberty Halts Development” where James Linehan describes the effects of being born wth a condition that prevented the onset of puberty. He stresses the importance of puberty, not just for physical growth, but for emotional and intellectual development too.

“Puberty blockers on demand” means deliberately stunting a child’s normal development.

FSH in both males and females initiates the maturation of the sperm and ova. A body without FSH will not have a mature reproductive system.

Testosterone is designed to develop male genitalia to the adult size and enable the production and maturation of sperm. Depriving a male body of testosterone means stunting his physical growth and causing infertility.

Oestrogen is designed to initiate ovulation and to keep the female reproductive organs healthy. Depriving a female body of oestrogen means her uterus and ovaries will atrophy (wither away) and she will become infertile.

“Puberty blockers on demand” means deliberately risking infertility.

Trans activists place all their attention on secondary sex characteristics and the desire of some individuals to have the breasts or beard of the opposite sex. Meantime, they dismiss as unimportant all the other significant changes of puberty.

In animals and humans, sex steroids play a critical role in myelination*, a process that insulates the brain’s neurons so that the electrical signals are more efficient. The fact that myelination happens during puberty tells us that efficient communication between brain regions, helping us to process information quickly, is a necessary part of the brain’s maturation process.

*(A kind of insulation that covers neurons in a substance called myelin so that they can quickly carry information to other neurons that are far away.)

Watch this presentation from Sallie Baxendale, a UK consultant neuropsychologist, who explains that there is a ‘window of opportunity’ for brain development in adolescence which may never be recovered if puberty is blocked at the crucial time.

While their peers are growing in size, increasing their brain function, and developing sexual attraction, those with no pubertal hormones lag far behind in a child-like state.

“Puberty blockers on demand” means deliberately keeping a child’s brain in an immature state.

The adults who are pushing puberty blockers onto children tell them that when they start cross sex hormones they will be able to go through the ‘right puberty’ for them. This displays an abysmal ignorance of the normal progression of puberty and of the chain of events that is set off by going on puberty blockers.

Blocking puberty stops the development of unwanted secondary sex characteristics and at the same time blocks brain maturation. The child remains childlike and will nearly always move on to cross sex hormones. These synthetic hormones do not give children the ‘right’ puberty because they are not designed to interact with the bodies they are injected into.

A boy taking oestrogen will also have his testosterone suppressed. His genitals will stay the size of a child’s and he will not have the FSH to mature sperm. A girl taking testosterone will also have her oestrogen suppressed and without LH and FSH will be unable to ovulate. Because LH and FSH are necessary to keep the reproductive organs healthy, prolonged suppression of these hormones leads to atrophy, often resulting in young women on testosterone for prolonged periods needing full hysterectomies.

Hormones of the opposite sex cannot provide an opposite sex puberty because the reproductive organs they are designed to influence do not exist in that body.

At the parliamentary protest, Alice, a male taking oestrogen, stated he has suffered “permanent liver damage” after taking the hormone for three years. Follow this link to hear him speak at 04.44. (Benjamin Doyle’s speech is at 21.45.)

Source: Wellington Pride Hikoi 2025

Alice blames the endocrinologist for giving him “dangerously wrong levels” of testosterone blocker and oestrogen. He is more concerned that these drugs have “stunted my feminising development” than he is about the likelihood of further organ damage caused by taking hormones that are not designed for his male body.

“Hormone therapy on demand” means deliberately harming the healthy organs of young adults.

Puberty blockers followed by cross sex hormones can, within a few years, transform a physically healthy child into a young adult who is infertile or sterile, and suffering from other permanent negative effects on brain development, height, bone density, and the cardio-vascular system.

In animals and healthy humans, pubertal hormones are necessary for proper growth of brain structures like the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and amygdala. Since the hypothalamus and pituitary gland are crucial for life-long hormone regulation, improper growth of these brain regions during puberty can lead to long-term health consequences, such as disorders of sleep or metabolism.

There is a lot more to puberty than just gaining secondary sex characteristics. Children on puberty blockers are also potentially forgoing brain development, sexual maturity, and future fertility. It is unconscionable for any adult to advocate for children to be given free access to such powerful drugs. They can’t possibly understand what they’re giving up.

“Puberty blockers on demand”means robbing children of their healthy futures.

Q: Who needs puberty?

A: Every adolescent who wants to grow into a fully functioning adult.