(PresidentialWire.com)- Puberty blockers, known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) compounds, got a warning from the FDA earlier this month. The medicine might induce brain swelling, eyesight loss, and significant hazards for youngsters injecting the hormone.
In six girls ages 5 to 12, officials found a credible link between puberty blockers and pseudotumor cerebri, which mimics a brain tumor.
FDA authorities said five were treated for central precocious puberty and one for transgender care. The pseudotumor cerebri symptoms developed three to 240 days after starting the GnRH agonist.
The patients had vision problems, headaches, and vomiting. GnRH agonists raise blood pressure, cerebral edema, and abducens neuropathy.
An FDA spokesman told Formulary Watch the incidents were clinically significant, and a warning should be included in all GnRH agonist medicines approved for pediatric patients.
The mechanism by which GnRH agonists may lead to pseudotumor cerebri has not been understood. However, kids with CPP may have a greater baseline risk than children without CPP. GnRH agonists provide a significant danger that should be labeled.
Puberty blockers and hormones are under criticism again after Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said the U.S. should not limit adolescent access to “gender-affirming care.”
Levine said that gender-affirming treatment is lifesaving, medically required, age-appropriate, and a vital tool for health care practitioners. As a physician, Levine knows how essential treatment that supports someone’s actual identity can be.
Florida’s Department of Health disagrees with Levine, saying that owing to a lack of precise data and the risk for long-term and irreversible damage, doctors should not administer puberty blockers or hormone treatment to youth 18 and under.’
Florida’s Department of Health wrote in a memo that based on the currently available evidence, encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones out of line with the child’s genetic make-up, or puberty blockers run an unacceptably high risk of harming.
Levine said every major medical group thinks “gender-affirming” care saves lives.
Jeremy Redfern, a Florida Health Department representative, denied Levine’s claims.
“It’s an appeal to authority that contradicts the evidence,” Redfern said. “And while the state Health Department follows the evidence, the federal government follows eminence, “ he concluded.
