The crusade against puberty-blocking drugs, therapies prescribed to transgender adolescents to (reversibly) stop the physical changes linked to puberty, such as the development of breasts or beards, is also beginning in Lombardy. The League presented a motion to the Lombardy Regional Council to request the ban on triptorelin, the most used blockade in this area, currently prescribed only after a careful multidisciplinary evaluation in specialized medical centers. “It is mainly used in the treatment of symptoms of prostate cancer, breast cancer where hormonal treatment is indicated and in premenopausal patients. But it can also delay the pubertal development of children who suffer from gender dysphoria and therefore do not accept their birth sex”, we read in the premises of the motion. “In the specific case of gender dysphoria, the Triptorelin is used to suspend pubertal development, even if its use is considered off-label, that is to say outside the specific therapeutic indications of the drug,” continues Carroccio And remember that since 2019, the AIFA includes this. therapy among the medications payable by the National Health Service for cases with “diagnosis of gender dysphoria”.
The effectiveness of the drug on gender incongruence
The League then emphasizes that “it has not yet been clarified whether the mere temporary blockage of physical development, in a dysphoric adolescent, can actually constitute a “favorable” condition for the resolution of his identity conflict.” It is worth remembering, however, that in recent months 12 scientific societies specializing in the sector – from endocrinologists to andrologists to child neuropsychiatrists – have written a letter to clarify the issue, highlighting the effectiveness and importance of these therapies. It is, experts emphasize, “a drug that saves lives”. According to data available to date, up to 40% of transgender adolescents attempt suicide (see James SE, et al. National Center for Transgender Equality. 2016), and treatment with triptorelin reduces this possibility by 70 % (see. TurbanJL et al.
The blunder in the movement
For its part, the League supports its request with a series of statements from so-called biologists and scientists. Presumed because whoever drafted and published the motion forgot to indicate the first and last names of the experts, who remained simply “XX”. An oversight and a blunder.
The demands of the League
Hence the League's requests to the Regional Council to activate a ministerial table of technicians and experts to develop new guidelines on the use of triptorelin in cases of gender dysphoria and a survey among the Regions on the triptorelin expenditures and prescriptions among trans adolescents. Not only. They are calling for an in-depth report from the AIFA on the consequences of the drug, a change in the law that allows the service to be covered by the NHS and – in the meantime – “to ban the prescription of triptorelin in Lombardy in all case”. cases not covered by the product sheet issued by the pharmaceutical company.”
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