For years, right-wing voices—among them Hillary Cass of the Cass Review and anti-trans organizations like the Society for Evidenced-Based Medicine—have argued that this halt in puberty does damage to a youth’s developing bone structure. This damage, they claim, is never recuperated, even if a youth’s puberty resumes, leading to lifelong issues. 

This rhetoric has been a main argument used by nations to justify sharply reducing youth access to gender-affirming medicine: in the UK, access to puberty blockers has been effectively stopped, and in Sweden it has been eliminated for all but the most “exceptional” cases. It has also been used by Republican politicians to justify bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth.

However, research conducted by Daniele Tienforti, Lorenzo Marinelli, and Giovanni Terrana shows that the claims of long-term bone damage are without merit. Tienforti and colleagues found that, as expected, puberty suppression does temporarily stop bone development in youth, but that once hormone replacement therapy is administered, youth catch back up to a position that is “not consistently statistically different” from that of their cisgender peers.