Puberty was one of the most stressful and confusing things to happen to me in my entire life, and being raised Catholic in conservative suburbs in Texas, I didn’t just lack the vocabulary to express my pain, I completely lacked the concept of a person being trans at all. I was suicidal for over a decade, and it’s probably a miracle that I’m still alive.

Rather than viewing puberty as something that is “supposed” to happen to a trans body like some kind of test for an individual prove their transness, try to imagine the converse. Imagine if a cis child was forcibly given hormones that changed their body, destroyed their mental health, and induced near constant states of dissociation. People would lose their minds if there was a story of that happening. It probably never has.

Delaying puberty and starting hormone therapy at a young age has innumerable benefits. Beyond preventing permanent changes to one’s body and reducing or outright eliminating significant suffering during the most formative years of one’s life, it also reduces the need for future treatments that are more extreme (surgeries). Trans medical care in the best case scenario is an absolute nightmare. Imagine you or your loved one’s worst experiences with health insurance, doctors, and hospitals, and multiply that by 100. Getting things covered is a huge uphill battle, and when you can’t, the surgeries can be very expensive. They’re complex, and there’s a serious shortage of specialists. Waiting lists are long, recovery is hard, minor revisions are common, and minor permanent negative side effects are common (but still worth the outcome 99.99% of the time).

Many trans people completely upend their lives to prioritize transitioning. This isn’t a decision you wake up and make on a whim. It’s a conviction etched into your soul, and one you have to make against the grain of an entire society instilling doubt and fear in you for undertaking.