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[–]buttbuttinator 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It is genuinely a bit terrifying how the effects of GnRH agonists on teenage brains is just completely ignored. When I was doing my research I found a study that found a 8 point IQ drop compared to the control. Now granted, it was a small group and the p-score was 9% when 5% is the standard, but they said that anything less than a standard deviation of IQ drop wasn't concerning (they did not say that it was statistically insignificant, they said 8 IQ points was insignificant). 5 μg/dL of lead in your child's blood stream is tied to about 1.5 points of IQ drop and we (understandably) freaked out about that despite it being 1/10th of a standard deviation. This study found that puberty blockers had a similar impact as injecting 1000 μg of lead directly into your child's bloodstream and this study was trying to say that it was no biggie because it was less of an effect than 2000 μg of lead.

And if a result that size gives you a confidence interval of less than 95% then what's the point of such a small sample size? Other studies with larger sample sizes did confirm the results BTW with much better than 95% confidence interval. Pretty much any study on GnRH agonists and IQ links them with a massive lowering of IQ and (in animal tests) cognitive functions. The fact that they are doing this to children is genuinely horrifying, at least when they originally started prescribing it for precocious puberty they didn't realize how damaging it was, but at this point there's absolutely no excuse.

[–]divingrightintowork 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'd love to see these studies! If you have them accessible

[–]buttbuttinator 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4940404/ (8 point IQ difference)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5253377/ (commentary on the above study)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5333793/ (study on sheep)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11683207/ this one doesn't have as many details available to the general public, but it does mention that "Intelligence quotient levels decreased significantly during treatment." and is mentioned in the commentary posted above)