112 Chapter 6 100.2±12.7 to 93.1±10.5 with a significant decline of performance score during treatment, but it was concluded that the decrease in IQ was not clinically relevant (Mul et al., 2001). A limitation of the study was the lack of a control group. A second small cross-sectional study of girls treated with GnRHa because of precocious puberty found no significant difference in cognitive functioning, behavioural, and social problems compared to healthy age-matched controls, but the study did not have enough power to detect differences smaller than one standard deviation (Wojniusz et al., 2016). Wojniusz and colleagues did report that emotional reactivity was possibly higher in girls treated with GnRHa although these results were not conclusive. Girls with early or precocious puberty are treated at a younger age so it is unclear to what extent these results apply to adolescents treated with GnRHa for gender dysphoria. Further studies are needed to assess if and what effects GnRHa have on various aspects of brain development in adolescence. Opinions about the use of GnRHa vary (Vrouenraets et al., 2015). Arguments for the use of GnRHa that have been brought forward are the benefit of early treatment with GnRHa for mental health and quality of life (de Vries et al., 2011a). Furthermore, it gives the adolescent and treatment team more time to explore the adolescent’s gender identity and treatment wishes (Hembree et al., 2017). If the adolescent pursues GAMT, some surgeries may not be necessary or less invasive as secondary sex characteristics are less developed. Early treatment is correlated with better postsurgical outcomes, possibly because of a physical appearance more in line with the affirmed gender (Cohen-Kettenis & van Goozen, 1997; Leibowitz & de Vries, 2016). However, this may not be of equal importance to all adolescents and early PS also precludes certain surgeries such as penile inversion vaginoplasty by limiting penile growth. Some have argued that treatment with puberty suppression prevents devastating psychological and physical harms including suicide and that adolescents should therefore be able to access this treatment even without parental approval (Dembrof, 2019; Priest, 2019), but others have underscored that there is no evidence that PS prevents suicide and that the risk of suicide, although high, should not be overstated and should be seen in comparison with a clinical comparison group rather than the general population (Antommaria, Shapiro, & Conard, 2019; Baker, 2019; Zucker, 2019). Arguments against the use of GnRHa that have been raised include possible long-term adverse effects on health, psychological, and sexual functioning (Laidlaw, Cretella, & Donovan, 2019a; Richards, Maxwell, & McCune, 2019; Vrouenraets et al., 2015). Some state that adolescents may be unable to make far-reaching decisions at a young age, especially in the presence of comorbid psychiatric conditions, which are common among minors with gender dysphoria (Korte et al., 2008; Laidlaw et al., 2019a; Vrouenraets et al., 2015). Furthermore, gender identity develops and may change during adolescence. Concerns have been raised that the use of GnRHa may influence this process and might increase the likelihood of persistence of gender dysphoria (Korte et al., 2008; Laidlaw et al.,
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