Top Tweets for #PubertyIsNotADisease

I don't like to quote post JK Rowling. Or at least I won't this time. She posted something that made me tear up. "The real heroines were those who stood up when their livelihoods were on the line. Some risked nearly everything and I revere them." A brilliant woman reveres some of you. I do, too. You are risking your livelihoods. Your self esteem. Everything. Just to prove that men can't be women. To prove we are REAL. To let little girls everywhere know that there is no cheat code to get out of this life and form another. You are all so breathtakingly beautiful that it makes me proud to be who we are. What we are. I'm proud to know and see each of you. I'm proud to know and be one of you. My sisters. You make me so damn proud. And so fucking grateful. I'm not alone. We aren't alone.

When my son was 3 yrs old, he developed an (as of yet) incurable endocrine disease. Type 1 diabetes. (PSA: it has nothing to do with diet or exercise, is entirely autoimmune, irreversible, and the first person to recommend a special diet or eating moss from a rock in Alaska to “cure” him gets blocked cuz I’m already aggravated by this video idiot.) So, for the last 11 years, we’ve had to run his pancreas (an endocrine gland) manually. In case y’all didn’t know, insulin is a HORMONE. Hormones are the messengers of the body, released in response to certain events to signal for something else to happen. Endocrine glands secrete them. Insulin is the one which helps sugar be taken out of the blood stream and into the cells for energy. If you talk to any type 1 diabetic or their parent, they will confirm to you that the endocrine system is NOT “plug and play.” It’s far from A+B=C. And it’s even FARTHER from “microdosing” and “doing what feels right for you.” The way that the body uses insulin (or any other synthetic hormone) is affected by a LOT of factors. Stress. Illness. Exercise. Age. Weight. Height. The phase of the moon, the color of your shirt, the score of the football game… basically, it’s unpredictable. You have to measure and respond to a LOT of things. And any parent of a type 1 kid can tell you, it’s ESPECIALLY unpredictable measuring these things in kids and teens, because of growth, which requires MASSIVE amounts of hormones. So, this “pausing puberty is awesome” and “don’t let anyone tell you what’s right for you,” is one thing: BULLSHIT. The endocrine system is INSANELY INTRICATE. Like a machine made out of glass. Once you start supplementing synthetic hormones, it is incredibly difficult to restore it to natural, homeostatic autonomic function. If the signals (hormones) are being sent out to get the functions done, the glands that produce those hormones say “right on, I’ll just sleep then.” Menopausal women and men with testosterone depletion, as well as people with thyroid conditions, can tell you… when an endocrine gland quits… it QUITS. All of this to say, as a parent who has had to make my child bleed and chase him around with syringes since he was a TODDLER…. This is INSANITY. Anyone who decides to VOLUNTARILY DISRUPT an endocrine system that is PERFECTLY FUNCTIONING is so absolutely bananas that they should be committed. And any “influencer” who is ENCOURAGING and INSTRUCTING young people to do so, with such a casual attitude? SHE should be in PRISON.