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[–]Porphyria 10 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Waaaaay back in the early to mid 1970s, I read a letter to the editor of Ms magazine , which I have never been able to forget. The letter writer was a woman, who wrote her letter in the form of a fairy tale, about how [from memory as best I can] "Once upon a time, a wizard looked into his crystal ball, and foresaw that his daughter was going to be six feet tall. How could she be feminine ? How could she be submissive? " The letter then recounted the "magic potions" she was forced to take , to stop her from getting that tall ; she topped out at 5' 7" , which was "taller than he [her father the "wizard"] would have liked". She recounted the various health problems those "potions" had left her with, I recall crumbling teeth (and jaws-?) was one, but there were more.

I was 9-11 when I read that letter, and it's been in the back of my mind for years ; now I realize she was put on something to bring on early puberty. I wonder : Back then, was her permission needed, to have her body altered , or was she treated as a piece of property that didn't even need to be informed? I don't recall if she gave her age at the time she sent in the letter, but if the letter was written in 1974-1977, she was probably "treated" in the mid to late 1960s (assuming she was at least 21 when she sent in her letter). It bothered me then and it bothers me now : That that woman was condemned to a lifetime of pain (and infertility-?) because one man felt entitled to alter her body to what HE thought was more feminine and attractive.

So puberty blockers and puberty starters have been around for decades, and at least by the 1970s, it was known that they had bad side effects . Since then, lots of girls have been "treated" to prevent them from winding up "too tall"/"too short" by either bringing on puberty early or delaying it, even though such treatments are known to cause health problems. So how could anyone have truly believed that puberty blockers were a "pause button" that could be administered to young people with little or no problem? The information on what the things do to girls was already available, and why would anyone think that they were any safer for boys, or that giving them to girls OR boys, for reasons other than fiddling with someone's adult height would be any safer?

[–]yishengqingwa666 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

If you could find this letter, I'd be interested to see it. Wow, this is horrific... jfc.

[–]Porphyria 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I read it as a child when I was lucky enough to live across the street from a college. I used to walk there and read the magazines, back when pre teens were all "free range". Since we moved away in 1980, the letter is in ONE of those magazines published before then (I think 1973-1976 is a good guesstimate of the likely publication date). Real useful, I know...