I saw an article on Cuba’s healthcare recently. It pointed to how they have very good life expectancy and low infant and child mortality rates, even subjected to decades of brutal blockade.

Thought about preventive healthcare

  • TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works
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    20 hours ago

    When a child is age 11, tell then the effect estrogen or testosterone will have on them, and give them the choice if they’re sure they want to continue with their endogenous hormones, if they’re sure they want to start exogenous hormone therapy, or if they’re unsure to pause the decision with puberty blockers for up to a couple of years

      • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 hours ago

        Despite what you just said, not letting the kid express themselves and have a safe space to do it is literally child abuse.

        Having to pitch the option and make a safe space for a child to express themselves as gay or fem or masc or whatever gender is literally the job of the parent. If you take that away and force the child to hide themselves from you, you’re stunting them.

        Most children, as long as you allow them the space, generally have a pretty good idea of what they are and want. Also keep in mind, a lot of sexuality and gender and expression is not permanent and they can change at any time. Especially puberty blockers, those are LITERALLY designed to be non-destructive since the wrong puberty can be destructive and all blockers do is temporarily pause that. As soon as you take the kid off blockers, they’ll go through puberty like normal. It happens literally all the time and it’s fine. Puberty blockers were designed for precocious puberty -meaning a kid starts getting puberty WAYYY earlier than they should, making their life difficult for a number of social, medical, other reasons.

        The more you push on kids to not express themselves or be “different”, the less they’re likely to feel safe to do so and find themselves and basically end up a self hating, closeted asshole. Let people explore and experiment safely. As a parent, it’s literally your job to provide a safe, healthy environment for your child to grow and learn about themselves and the world. Shutting down exploration of self always causes often irreparable psychological and physical damage…And that extends to whether they like boys, girls, a mix, nobody, something in-between, or even if they change their minds over and over - or, in the case of gender, how they see themselves and how they want to express that, that’s okay!

        Unlike you, we aren’t saying to make the decision about who they are for the kid, but to allow them space and safety to explore it on their own, without shame or prejudice, in a way that isn’t going to hurt them, to the best of our abilities.

        Because of far right politics and far right disinformation everywhere, though, that freedom to seek peace, self acceptance, and true happiness in life is hampered and confused and, sadly, emotionally charged. So, even as parents, we must do the best we can to provide for our children in the best ways we can, and not oppress them unless it’s dangerous for them.

        Let kids be silly, let them explore in safety, let kids be kids. Don’t tell them who they are, let them figure that out for themselves.

    • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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      19 hours ago

      How to explain the big words to eleven year olds? I’m not sure i know.

      Hormone: chemical messenger that your body uses to influence how you grow, whether you’re hungry or full, or whether you’re about to run or react.

      Puberty: how your body changes as you grow from a child into an adult.

      Estrogen: a type of hormone everyone has, which women have more. It causes body changes in puberty (???)

      Testosterone: a type of hormone everyone has, which men have more. It causes your voice to lower in puberty, body changes, etc. (???)

      Endogenous: produced by your own body for its own use?

      Exogenous: produced outside of your body, but used by your body?