"The edifice is beginning to fall — and it’s happening faster than anyone could have predicted. The latest evidence comes from the New York Times, which has published a long article questioning the use of puberty blockers in children who reject stereotypical behaviour. “They paused puberty, but is there a cost?” asks the headline. But the bylines on the piece, Megan Twohey and Christina Jewett, are as significant as their investigation.
Twohey is one of two Times journalists who broke the story about Harvey Weinstein’s long history of abusing women. She and Jodie Kantor shared a Pulitzer, while a screen adaptation of their book, She Said, has just opened in British cinemas. Their work took down a Hollywood mogul who had previously been regarded as untouchable, which is why Twohey’s name on the article is so striking. Her colleague, Jewett, is an award-winning journalist whose beat includes drug safety. Their article acknowledges that “concerns are growing about long-term physical effects and other consequences” of prescribing puberty blockers to children as young as eight. It cites cases where teenagers have developed osteoporosis, a condition of weakened bones that is usually seen in adults in their 50s and 60s. A girl in New York, who had been taking the drugs for two years, was found to have lost as much as 15% of her bone density."
