In an age of rising depression and anxiety in teens, the last thing they need is to be told that  their problems can be resolved by becoming the opposite sex. What they need is to be heard, given compassion and help to dig deep into their pain. We live in a world that wants to put every problem in a box, fix it and move on. As physicians we are anxious to give concrete help and I often feel this way. There are so many ailments that we don’t completely understand and often we just write a prescription. This isn’t because we don’t care but we fall into the same trap that parents and counselors do. We hate to see kids hurt, so we do our best to give any help- even if it’s a band aid. But we’ve walked into dangerous territory. When kids come to us and say they are gender-confused or dysphoric, we are too quick to advise a dangerous solution – medical transition.

Dr. Diane Ehrensaft director of the University of California San Francisco’s Mental Health Department said “Parents say to us, ‘what do you really know about the long-term effects of puberty blockers? Who has really…