Children cannot consent to losing fertility and sexual function

Informed consent for young people is not a single conversation: it is a process that unfolds over months, involves the young person, their parents, and clinicians, and includes explicit discussion of fertility preservation options. The claim that sexual function is eradicated rests on an overstated premise, because the evidence from trans adults who have gone through gender-affirming treatment consistently shows that most report satisfactory sexual outcomes. There is also something worth separating out here: young people understand their own gender identity long before any clinical process begins, and that understanding does not require a child to absorb every possible future consequence in a single appointment. When this process is portrayed as inherently fraudulent, the families who hear it and step back are the ones who pay the price, watching their child go through the wrong puberty while a careful, staged clinical pathway was available to them.