The Vigilant Fox 🦊 on Nostr: What we now call puberty blockers were actually created as a treatment for severe ...

What we now call puberty blockers were actually created as a treatment for severe prostate cancer. Since testosterone fuels tumor growth, doctors tried suppressing it.

At first, they used estrogen analogs, but those caused cancers, strokes, and birth defects in the children of women who took them. Oops.

So researchers turned to Lupron. In 1984, a shaky study suggested it might slightly prolong survival in terminal patients. Half still died within two years. Despite warnings and grave reservations from FDA reviewers, Lupron was approved in 1985.

It was only ever meant as a last resort.

Read that part again.