Danger of Puberty Suppression

Published January 29, 2020 in Diakonos

What would you do if a child in your life rejected their natal gender? Would you blindly follow the counsel of a culture that advocates for hormone treatment at an early age in order to suppress puberty and facilitate gender transition? Before you commit to long-term use of a powerful, expensive and experimental synthetic hormone treatment plan, would you be willing to take the time to examine the ethics surrounding a course of action that will permanently affect the life of the child? Would you want to consider the danger of puberty suppression?

If your answer is “yes,” a BBS Doctor of Philosophy candidate has done the research that can guide you in a search for answers from a biblical perspective.

Michael S. Dellaperute, Ph.D. candidate at Baptist Bible Seminary, addresses these concerns in “The Danger of Puberty Suppression: An Ethical Evaluation of Suppressing Puberty in Gender-Dysphoric Children from a Christian Perspective.” Dellaperute serves as the lead pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. Through extensive research and study in systematic theology, he tackles some of the most difficult questions facing parents, medical providers and ministry professionals today.

“Dellaperute demonstrates scientifically that there is no known medical cause for gender dysphoria and thus radical medical intervention such as hormones and gender reassignment surgeries are medically, ethically and biblically inappropriate to help parents or their child deal with the confusion,” reads a forward to the book by Dr. Mark McGinniss, BBS professor of Old Testament, assistant seminary dean and editor of the Journal of Ministry and Theology.

According to Dellaperute, several serious questions are presently being overlooked in the rush to treat gender dysphoric and TGNC children with puberty-suppressing hormones, such as: Are puberty-suppressing hormones medically necessary? Is there any evidence to prove that hormone treatment is helpful, and not harmful, to gender-dysphoric children? Does hormone treatment resolve gender dysphoria? Do other treatment options exist to address the underlying causes of gender dysphoria? Are parents, medical providers and ministry professionals morally obligated to provide puberty suppressors for patients who self-diagnose? Does Scripture offer any insight into the treatment of gender dysphoric children? And finally, who really benefits from advocating for the early use of GnRH agonists?

Those seeking a guide to understanding gender dysphoria from a biblical perspective will gain a deeper understanding through Dellaperute’s book, released by Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Find “The Danger of Puberty Suppression” here.

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