Concentrating on the original question, and avoiding political opinion because I'm in another country, my impression is this:

1. As someone else mentioned, puberty blockers are the least worst solution to the problem. They delay most development until the person is old enough to understand any decisions they make and their consequences.

Anyone who disagrees with this either does not understand what puberty blockers do or does understand and has a hidden agenda. They probably want the young person to become locked into a body which conforms to the disagreer's ideal world view.

2. When a child becomes aware that they are not normal for their gender group is also important. Many know instinctively at a very early age. For this group transition is necessary and probably effective, assuming the usual safeguards are followed.

I am one of those who didn't know at an early age. I appeared to be a boy and assumed that I had to do what other boys did, but I was never comfortable with that attitude. I got on with girls but, of course, they assumed that I was a 'boy' and treated me that way when I might have preferred a different relationship.

Everything changed for me at about age 10. Looking back it is apparent to me that was when I began puberty. Then began ten or so years of madness when I didn't know who or what I was and, in the 1960's, nobody to tell me. By age 18 I was ready to transition and, had I been born fifty years later, I would almost certainly have done so.

And it would have been a terrible mistake.

Why? Again, hindsight and the slow realisation that the driver of my transgender leanings is in fact Testosterone. I have relatively low levels of the stuff; for many years I thought that everyone was like me and it was only much later that I realised that most men are perpetually soaked in the stuff.

I began to notice that my TG desires, no, needs, gradually ramped up over a period of many days and then cut off dead over perhaps a period of about twenty minutes. These ramps repeated at about a 33-day interval. I eventually understood that this was the levels of my Testosterone production gradually building up and then abruptly stopping. Over the years I have seen these ramps subside and, while they are still there, they are very much reduced as my body ages.

So that's why transitioning, for me, would have been a mistake. Remove the main sources of Testosterone production, remove the influence that hormone has on my brain. No T, no femininity. I wound have had all the equipment and none of the motivation. I wouldn't have been female but I wouldn't have been male either. I'm guessing that many of the 'failures' after transition may be due to a similar cause. Testosterone affects my brain differently than it affects most male brains. It does not make me male, except in a purely physical sense, and even that is done poorly. I probably class as MAIS (Mild Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome).

I only shave every two to three days. I have very little body hair. My hip size has always been bigger than my chest size and my waist has always been small. My shoulders were narrow until I started knocking houses about. I am not obese or even overweight for my height. My pelvis is so large I have floating ribs inside it, but it is a male shaped pelvis. My skin has always been as soft and sensitive as that of most women, which has sometimes been a drawback during my life. Because of my high waist I find most male clothes uncomfortable and badly fitting. I can't buy men's jackets since they don't close over my hips unless I buy too large for my chest and shoulders. Needless to say, women's attire fits me much better.

So I'm stuck. I do understand my position and that other options could have had worse outcomes, but that is again entirely from hindsight. I could easily have made a mistake had I been young enough when the facilities were readily available.

I wonder how many others have similar bodies to me.

Penny

PS I do not know if, had I transitioned, whether HRT (Estrogen) would have made a positive difference. It is all moot now anyway.