If teenagers are not allowed to have a vasectomy they should not be allowed to go on hormone therapy before age 18

I'm taking this as hormone therapy used to treat gender dysphoria.

Where I come from, someone seeking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) would have to be placed on a waiting list for up to two years and attend several therapy sessions before they are even considered eligable for HRT.

(Note: gender dysphoria is classed as a mental illness in the EU, however, being transgender in and of itself is not a mental illness)

Dysphoria destroys people's confidence, can be debilitating and can lead to suicide (47% of trans people pre-transition have attempted suicide). There is also the danger of not "passing" (physically reflecting one's gender) which can lead to trans people being ridiculed, attacked or even raped ("corrective rape"). Withholding treatment for this would be unfair, especially if the person seeking HRT had been diagnosed and confirmed to transgender by a gender specialist as after that, there would simply be no reason to deny treatment.

In most cases trans people want kids of their own but do not want to produce them using their birth genitals, so the risk of becoming infertile/sterile is not a problem to them (most would be upset by these circumstances, however the benefits of passing would outweigh the loss of the ability to have biological children). Becoming infertile or sterile is also not guaranteed (some trans men continue to menstruate post HRT, some beget children).

Vasectomies are a definite and permanent sterilisation method. The only thing you need to get a vasectomy is desire to have it done, and as an adult, you should be free to do this. I think it is fair if the doctors try and dissuade you at a young age, but ultimately, they cannot stop you from getting it if you really want it.

The difference here is that HRT is a treatment for a very distressing incongruency between one's gender and sex, where becoming infertile/sterile is not the goal, and a vasectomy is simply cementing the desire to not reproduce. The amount of therapy and examination that goes into ensuring someone should undergo HRT allows people to confidently transition in their teens, knowing that it is highly unlikely they will regret their actions in the future (regret does occur, but "detransitioning" is rare.)

All in all, I think both Vasectomies/Hysterectomies and HRT should be open to teenagers so long as they have fully considered the possibility of regret later in life, or in the case of HRT, have visited the correct specialists and therapists before transitioning.

/r/unpopularopinion Thread