On July 17, the council of Friuli Venezia Giulia, leaning on a center-right majority led by the League party, passed a motion calling on the prohibition the prescription of drugs that prevent normal sexual development of adolescents.
The leftist parties in the regional council – including M5S, one of the Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s coalition partners – voted against the motion.
Italy’s coalition government consists of not only Salvini, but also Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Party (M5S) as well as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
The council’s motion clearly stated that “puberty is not a disease” and should therefore not be prevented with surgery or drug treatments that produce irreversible effects. The motion passed highlighted the long-term negative effects of drugs containing triptorelin.
Triptorelin is marketed by Ipsen as Decapeptyl and as Diphereline and Gonapeptyl by Ferring Pharmaceuticals of Switzerland. In the United States, it is sold by Watson Pharmaceuticals as Trelstar.
Used for suppressing puberty, the drug is a synthetic version of the natural hormone GnRH, which regulates the release of gonadotropins that influence the development of the release of ova from human ovaries. Among its serious side effects, for women and girls, is ovary over-production; ovarian cysts; miscarriage; and heavy, prolonged menstruation.
“There is no evidence, in fact, on the effective full restoration of fertility in the case of withdrawal from treatment.” Data from research by the American College of Pediatricians was cited in the motion.
It noted that as many as 98 percent of minors eventually outgrow their gender dysphoria after having passed through puberty naturally. Gender dysphoria is a feeling that one’s biological sex does clashes with one’s gender expression.
“We express opposition to the use of this drug,” said Mauro Bordin, according to VoceControCorrente. Bordin, also a signatory of the motion, represented the League on the council.
He warned that there was an insufficient number of clinical studies, “especially regarding the possible long-term negative effects and why blocking puberty pharmacologically could cause a misalignment in [adolescent] physical and cognitive development”.
Bordin pointed out that puberty-blockers could have an impact on the parts of the brain that contribute to the definition of sexual identity, which involve both environmental and educational factors.
According to the League representative, the motion was not an “ideological position, but a proposal of common sense in the exclusive interest of the health of children throughout Italy”. Informed critics have long warned against medical intervention when it comes to gender dysphoria.
One such critic is Dr Michelle Cretella, member of the American College of Pediatricians. She noted in 2017, that “transgenderism is a psychological disorder, not a biological one”.
Cretella added: “Consequently, we expect transgenderism and its associated medical procedures to increase as society increasingly promotes this lifestyle.” In response to a move by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons to coin the term “gender confirmation surgery,” she said, “linguistic engineering precedes and accompanies social engineering”.
She added: “Transgender activist physicians realize that sex reassignment surgery is a misnomer. In other words, surgery cannot change a person’s sex. By renaming sex reassignment surgery gender confirming surgery, they give the impression that they are affirming an inborn trait and further the innate immutable transgender myth.”
On the Italian Notizie Pro-Vita website, Dr Silvana De Mari dismissed the notion that biological sex is a myth. “The body is real. The mind must accept this reality and love it.” De Mari said the problem remained a psycological one.
“Where there is no harmony between mind and body, the mind must be cured; the body must not be altered. The notion that sees the body and mind as disconnected, leads to a pathological dissociative disorder.”
The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) has warned the surgeon general of the United States against surgical and hormonal intervention to manipulate the sex of minors. The ACP reiterated statements by the British Royal College of General Practitioners warning of the long-term effects of these techniques which have not been subjected to sufficient research.