So far this month, the Georgia Senate has passed two bills adding new restrictions on transgender Georgians, and they could be going for a hat trick.

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services approved a bill that would bar doctors from prescribing puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria, a feeling of distress that comes from one’s gender identity not matching one’s body.

The bill’s author, Sen. Ben Watson, a Savannah Republican and a physician, argued that prescribing puberty blockers breaks the Hippocratic oath doctors take to do no harm.

“Puberty blockers do do harm, and that’s the issue,” Watson said. “It changes the bone structure, it changes so many things, but it’s a natural response that youth are going through. They’re going through puberty. These are puberty blockers. It is a natural process that they go through.”

The bill could head to the full Senate, which has recently passed bills banning transgender girls from school sports and preventing transgender state employees from receiving gender-affirming care on the state health care plan. Neither have passed the House yet.

Issues of transgender rights have been attention-getters in Washington as well as in statehouses around the country, but they’re also personal for parents like Peter Isbister, founder of the metro Atlanta chapter of TransParent, a support group for parents of transgender kids, and the dad of a transgender child.

“My 11-year-old son will get the health care he needs, I am privileged to say, because I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that he does. Why? Because I love him, as you love your children,” he told the committee.

“Do you trust yourselves to provide for your children’s health care? I would imagine that you do,” he added. “Do you trust yourself to love your child and teach him and show him or her the love of God as we do at Congregation Bet Haverim, where we believe that we are all in the image of God? I am sure that you do, that you trust yourselves. I am asking you to trust me and to trust us, because we are not different than you.”

Doctors weigh in

To treat gender dysphoria in children, doctors may recommend options including social transitioning, which could include adopting a new name or pronouns; hormone therapy, in which patients take estrogen or testosterone; or puberty blocking drugs, which pause the process of puberty.

Many transgender people who underwent puberty describe it as an awful experience in which their bodies changed in ways that did not feel natural.

According to the Mayo Clinic, puberty blockers can improve mental health for those dealing with gender dysphoria, but use of common puberty blockers can lead to complications, including dealing with bone growth and density as well as fertility, depending on when the medicine is started.

Speaking over Zoom at Wednesday’s hearing, Dr. Michelle Zeanah, a Statesboro-based pediatrician invited by the committee who specializes in caring for children with autism, said children are legally barred from making life-altering decisions like getting tattoos, and they should not be allowed to make a big decision like starting puberty blockers.

“I encounter young people that can’t label their emotions every day,” she said. “And some of them are very smart students who make excellent grades, qualify for gifted programs, but that doesn’t mean that they understand their emotions or that they can convey abstract concepts or understand abstract concepts. They also really often have difficulty understanding the perspective of others, and those deficits really impact their own sexuality and their relationships. So allowing children and adolescents to make decisions that are permanent doesn’t really seem in their best interest.”

Zeanah said her expertise was relevant because children with autism are more likely to experience gender dysphoria or identify as LGBTQ.

Dr. David McKalip, a Cartersville-based neurosurgeon, urged lawmakers to move forward with the ban.

“When you shut down puberty for years, there’s no going back. There’s no ethical practice of medicine that can support stopping the natural sexual development of kids,” he said. “The only reversibility comes when you use it for things like precocious puberty for a year or two, but not for when you stop it for years. Kids on puberty blockers for gender dysphoria are more likely to go on to use dangerous cross-sex hormones, the vast majority do, and move on to pursue cross-sex surgeries.”

Dr. Jason Schneider, a physician who provides gender-affirming care in metro Atlanta, said the idea that children are altering their gender on a whim is false.

“It’s a very small percentage of kids who ultimately identify as transgender,” he said. “If a parent or a family member brings in a child that they’re wondering if they may be transgender, there are social workers, there are psychologists, there are therapists that work with the child over months to years before they get to the point where puberty blockers are even considered.”

Schneider said it’s true that the drugs may have side effects, but he said that is not abnormal and doctors monitor their patients and limit the time they can take puberty blockers.

“The physicians on the committee know there is no perfect medication,” he said. “There are risks and benefits with every treatment we offer, and so it’s a discussion. Yeah, there is a risk of changes in bone health as you get older, but that’s something we can monitor. That’s something we can treat. But when you compare that to the high rates of depression and suicidality for kids that have gender dysphoria, the benefits clearly outweigh any long-term risks.”

Georgia banned doctors from performing gender-affirming surgeries or prescribing hormone treatments for minors with gender dysphoria in 2023 but left puberty blockers available.

At the time, GOP lawmakers, including Watson, described that as a compromise that would allow children and their families more time to undergo mental health treatments and perhaps decide not to seek hormone therapy.

The following year – as Watson faced a primary challenge for the first time since 2010 – he offered a puberty blocker ban bill, which passed the Senate but fell short in the House.

“We have debated this bill last year,” Watson said. “It passed here, passed in the Senate, I look forward to the House doing that. When you look at the accumulation of the data, I think it is the right thing to do, protecting the minors from puberty blockers.”