Medical support with hypothalamic blockers in Gender Incongruent adolescents is important. This was confirmed by Dr. Alessandra Fisher, President of the Italian Society for Gender, Identity and Health (SIGIS) endocrinologist, with Dr. Jiska Ristori, psychologist and psychotherapist, member of the Board of Directors of SIGIS itself, in line with the President of the Society Institute of Andrology and Sexuality Medicine (SIAMS), Prof. Andrea Isidori.
This was emphasized in a letter sent to the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and to the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, in collaboration with other scientific societies in the sector (SIE, SIP, SINPIA) in response to the criticisms expressed by the Italian Psychoanalytic Society with respect to the use of blockers in adolescents with gender incongruence.
“It is good to remember that the treatment with hypothalamic blockers – declares Dr. Fisher – is not a treatment in the experimental phase, but approved by the AIFA Determination (n. 21756/2019), has had a favorable opinion from the National Bioethics Committee (CNB ) dated July 13, 2018, is supported by international scientific recommendations endorsed also at national level and is widely used in clinical practice at international level. Furthermore, this medical intervention is reserved for carefully selected cases, following a multidisciplinary and individualized evaluation as described in the AIFA decision”.
Dr. Ristori also points out that the rationale for the use of blockers is based on the possibility of gaining time precisely to reflect in a more conscious, reversible way and free from the difficulties associated with the advance of sexual maturation. The population of transgender adolescents is, in fact, described as psychologically more vulnerable (with higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal risk), also due to the concern or suffering linked to contact with a body that develops in a direction other than one’s own identity gender. Importantly, follow-up studies to date show that treatment with hypothalamic blockers can significantly reduce behavioral and emotional problems and suicidal risk, as well as improve general psychological functioning in treated adolescents.
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