Watson

This is my question--how is informed consent ever even possible given the truncated assessment time frames and quackery of self appointed gender experts, clinics, and clinicians selling transitioning to vulnerable populations?

It isn't. All informed consent does it remove responsibility away from clinicians who are rushing young, and often mentally unwell, people through irreversible treatment.

Teens are affirming classmates as "transgender" just because someone is distressed with the gender extremes of teen life. By the time a "trans" teen gets to a therapist, they've been down the rabbit hole a long time. Nonetheless, professionals should be allowed to question them.

Not just teens. I've spoken to many parents who found out school staff were affirming their kids behind the parents backs.

I *know* it isn’t the same, but when adolescents see themselves as fat and want to peruse anorexia and bulimia, they should be affirmed in their value as humans. Their desire to change their bodies can be acknowledged and cared for, but not fostered or enabled by professionals.

If they show no signs of physical dysphoria, there is no reason to physically transition. There are times where physically transitioning is appropriate, but only if they show extreme discomfort with the sex specific parts of their body, that is NOT a result of external sources.

What can be tricky is that young people may have dysphoria, yet it gets interpreted as other things or ascribed to neurological differences (i.e. being differently abled). There are certain things that people with dysphoria have, yet might not express, and so suffer in silence.

Some who are thought to have little history of dysphoria may actually have severe troubles that they are just really good at hiding. It would take special kinds of therapy or even technology such as Artificial Intelligence to even have some idea to screen (it may reduce errors).