Marlo Mack, a native of Seattle, is the creator of the award-winning audio How to Be a Woman and the author of the same name’s audiobook. Before a 2020 court ruling against puberty blockers shocked the earth and Marlo’s transgender child started taking them, she sought a shockwave.
On Tuesday ( 12 March 2024 ), NHS England confirmed the medicine, which has been described as “life- saving” medical treatment for trans children, will no longer be prescribed in gender identity clinics, and will only be accessible to younger people as part of clinical research studies.
This is Marlo Mack’s mother’s experience with the lifestyle- preserving health treatment.
Marlo’s puberty filters account
Since my three-year-old baby first began to tell me that “he” was truly a girl, I’ve known that day was coming almost for ten years. My child has been anticipating it, too, for all these years, asking me again and again:” When do I get the medicine to make sure I do n’t become a boy, mama”?
And for years, my answer was,” Never for a long time, sweetheart. Never until you’re many older”.
Of course, the times spun by. She turned 11, therefore 12. Her transgender friends started to shave, and their mothers started telling me in murmured tidbits that their girls were getting their periods.
At the same time, the mother of my mother’s trans friends began telling me that their children were entering adolescence, too. One by one, they announced, the time had come for their kids to have their own unique version of puberty, our trans tweens ‘ rite of passage into early age: Blockers.
Trans tweens ‘ rite of passage into premature age: Filters
The term” Blockers” is used in layman’s terms to describe the treatments that temporarily pause natal puberty, such as those that my daughter will not go through the masculinizing changes she finds both abhorrent and terrifying.
Blockers have been used for decades on children who are in their early puberty (eight-year-old boys who start growing beards, for example ), and they are completely reversible ( stop the blocker medication and a person’s natal puberty will start right back up ). Young people who are about to enter puberty and are experiencing this feeling in a strange way find a soothing breathing room in blocks.
Blockers offer younger people who are just entering puberty a calm breathing space.
And yes, filters are the first of a long line of potential longtime medical procedures for my child. And, yes, I take this incredibly really. However, there has never been a second option for me, especially now that I’ve discovered that filters may even keep my child dead.
For parents like me, the “decision” about blocking was made long ago, when our younger children – age four, five, or six-years-old – cried themselves to sleep at the thought of growing up looking like baby when they knew they really seem like father, or vice versa. While some transgender kids do not come until the early teenage years or later. And thus we assured our frightened young children that everything would work out. We comforted them by knowing that modern medicine can stop this because it is.
My child has now gone through a joyful, extremely typical girlhood that has been largely anxiety-free thanks to that comforting knowledge. And her father and I have benefited from the pleasant awareness that our community has the privileged opportunity of receiving top-notch, transgender-friendly health care.
Though this moment has long seemed inevitable, it also generally seemed far away.
Though this time has long seemed inevitable, it also always seemed far away, a long way down our journey. I suppose it’s generally like that, for us parents: We’re not quite ready for how hard our children will grow up. I know I was n’t. My daughter turned out to be a bit of a late comer: As her transgender kids started getting their catcher implant at age 10, 11, and 12, our pediatrician kept saying it was n’t still time, and as a result it seemed like my daughter was going to be my little lady for a while longer.
But of course, one day she was going to grow up. I sat next to my daughter on the couch in the living room a few weeks after the pandemic had completely destroyed my life. I was suddenly enthralled to learn that the day had arrived. I had a gut feeling, not anything to specifically mention. She was just … different. She was occupying a different kind of room in the room. My little girl no longer sounded slender. I immediately sent her a quick email. A blood test confirmed my maternal hunch: It was time.
The last few months have been a rough ride. First, we were told that COVID- 19 restrictions meant that all “elective” medical procedures were on hold until further notice. Would the pandemic mean that my daughter would n’t receive the medical care I had promised her for a decade? I started to panic. After a nail- biting summer, we got the good news: We might need to wait a little longer, but her doctors would make it happen.
My daughter, who is just shy of 13 years old, had a tiny cylinder ( imagine a third of a toothpick ) inserted under the skin in her left arm in December. It will secrete a medication over the course of the next two to three years to stop male puberty from occurring. When her doctor orders, she will begin taking oestrogen and start resembling her getting more and more curvy peers. Which is, of course, exactly what she wants.
When her doctor says it’s time, she’ll start taking oestrogen.
I questioned her about how she felt the morning before her scheduled procedure to insert the implant. ” Nervous and excited”, she said.
She explained that she was concerned because she would be receiving a shot to numb her arm. She hates needles.
” And why are you excited”? I asked.
” I’m excited to be growing up”, she said.
” I’m excited to be growing up”.
And her mother is:
I’m happy and secure knowing my child is.
Grateful beyond belief for this miraculous ( and life- saving ) medical care.
Full of the bittersweet feeling that comes with a wonderful ending ( childhood ) and a wonderful beginning ( children ).
This article was first published in 2021 and then changed to 2024.
