Several states — including Ohio on Jan. 24 — are outlawing gender-affirming therapy for transgender minors. The Ohio law bans surgery for youth younger than 18, which medical professionals say does not happen in the state, according to the Associated Press.
It also outlaws hormone therapy, which is used on people younger than 18.
The typical transgender journey begins with counseling and social transitioning — identifying publicly by the chosen gender and taking cosmetic measures like growing longer hair for transgender girls. At this stage, children usually undergo a psychological evaluation to diagnose potential gender dysphoria.
By the late tweens or early teens, at the onset of puberty, the next stage would involve the use of puberty blockers to block the development of secondary sex characteristics, such as the growth of breasts in transgender boys.
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The effects of puberty blockers are reversible, according to the Associated Press.
At that point, around the age of 16 usually, teens can begin hormone therapy, in the form of lab-made estrogen or testosterone. Medical guidelines call for hormone therapy to begin when the young person “is mature enough to make medical decisions,” the Associated Press reports.
A final step is surgery — although the AP reports not all transgender youth take that option. Medical guidelines restrict surgery to transgender people 18 and older, although the recommendation has an exception for 17-year-olds who have received hormone therapy for at least a year.
While the effects of puberty blockers end when the drugs are discontinued, hormone therapy impacts are more persistent and surgery is more or less permanent.
Studies — including a meta-study of 27 other studies of 8,000 people in the United States, Europe and Canada who had transgender surgeries — estimate that about 1% of people who had surgery later regret it.
