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Transgender Adults Brace For Treatment Cutoffs In Missouri

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TRANSGENDER: Ellie Bridgman spent her Thursday night shift at a local gas station in Union, Missouri, planning for the day she’ll lose access to gender-affirming therapies the transgender and nonbinary 23-year-old credits with making “life worth living.”

Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued a first-of-its-kind emergency regulation this week that will place severe requirements on adults and children before they may obtain puberty-blocking medications, hormones, or operations “to transition gender.”

Transgender rights campaigners have threatened to sue before the regulation is enacted on April 27. However, pledges of fast legal action have done little to assuage the fears of trans-Missourians like Bridgman, who believe it is time to leave the state.

Before physicians can administer gender-affirming medical therapies, patients must have had an “intense pattern” of documented gender dysphoria for three years and at least 15 hourly sessions with a therapist for at least 18 months. Patients would also need to be evaluated for autism and “social media addiction,” and any psychiatric symptoms associated with mental health concerns would need to be treated and cured.

Some people will be permitted to keep their medications while they wait for the necessary exams.

Bridgman, who uses the pronouns she/they, is autistic and depressed. She sees only two options: travel across the country, away from all her friends and family, to a state that protects access to gender-affirming care, or accept the major health risks associated with illegally purchasing hormones online.

She went to the pharmacy on Friday afternoon to pay for her remaining refills out of pocket.

“Placing restrictions on transitioning for people with depression is just a way for them to completely bar us from transitioning at all,” Bridgman explained. Transgender “Dysphoria is the root cause of depression for many trans people.” You can’t treat sadness unless you tackle the underlying dysphoria.”

Bridgman admitted that before beginning hormone replacement therapy last summer, “life felt meaningless,” and suicidal thoughts flooded her mind. Her “last chance at life,” she added, was to receive gender-affirming care.

transgender

He’ll lose access to gender-affirming therapies the transgender and nonbinary 23-year-old credits with making “life worth living.”

The legislation comes as Republican lawmakers around the country, including Missouri,Transgender have introduced hundreds of bills addressing practically every aspect of transgender life, with a focus on health care.

At least 13 states have passed legislation restricting or prohibiting gender-affirming Transgender care for minors. Governors in Montana, North Dakota, and neighboring Kansas have bills awaiting action, while almost two dozen more states are exploring laws to limit or prohibit care.

National LGBTQ+ rights advocates argue that the Missouri regulation, based on a state law against misleading and unfair commercial practices, goes further than most other regulations.

Three states have restricted gender-affirming care through regulation or administrative order, but Missouri is the only one that restricts adult treatments.

The National LGBTQ Task Force’s Cathy Renna said the rule indicates how Republicans are now successfully widening the reach of gender-affirming treatment limitations beyond children, which groups have been warning about for months.

“When they see something that works in one state, they’ll try to replicate it in another,” Renna said.

Bailey’s ban comes after a former employee at a transgender child clinic in St. Louis claimed that physicians at the Washington University Transgender Centre rushed to offer therapy without doing a proper patient assessment.

Bailey stated that he is looking into the facility but has yet to produce a report. Others, including another former employee and patients, have denied the allegations of mistreatment. Bailey and the university did not reply to phone and email queries seeking comment.

Dr. Meredithe McNamara, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine specializing in adolescent medicine, said data strongly supports preserving access to hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care.

Bailey’s rule requires that patients be shown paperwork containing nearly two dozen explicit statements raising concerns about gender-affirming treatments as part of the consent process — a practice doctors like McNamara have condemned as conversion therapy.

“There is no evidence that psychotherapy as a sole treatment is effective,” she stated.

transgender

Depression will prevent her from receiving hormones.

In preparation for limits, Stacy Cay, an autistic trans woman in Kansas City, has been storing vials of injectable estrogen. The 30-year-old comedian and model realized she only needed a modest quantity of estrogen and had conserved enough for a year. She must cross state boundaries to fill prescriptions or consider moving when that runs out.

Cay claims that her continuous depression will prevent her from receiving hormones under the regulation and that her autism diagnosis may hinder her future care. While the regulation does not state whether autism disqualifies a person from receiving gender-affirming care, it does require an evaluation.

According to a 2020 study published in the natural sciences journal Nature Communications, transgender and gender-diverse people, or those whose gender expressions do not correspond to gender standards, are 3-6 times more likely to be autistic than cisgender people. They were also more prone to suffer from other developmental and psychological disorders like depression.

“They know a lot of us are autistic, and it’s part of their strategy to paint us as unstable — that we can’t be trusted to make our own medical decisions,” Cay explained.

Attorneys from Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union have stated that they intend to sue to challenge the new rule.

Missouri is subject to the jurisdiction of the 8th United States Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a preliminary injunction last year blocking Arkansas from implementing a first-in-the-nation ban on trans minors obtaining gender-affirming therapy. Federal judges have also stopped a similar measure in Alabama.

Republican lawmakers in charge of Missouri’s push to prohibit gender-affirming therapies for minors said Friday that they have no plans to expand their proposal to cover adults.

Separate proposals enacted by the Missouri House and Senate prohibit treatments for children under 18 but not for people covered by private insurance or willing to pay for their health care.

“I believe it is detrimental to a person’s body, Transgender and probably even their psyche, to go through treatments like that,” said state Sen. Mike Moon, the Senate legislation’s lead sponsor. “Adults can make decisions like these.”

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SOURCE – (AP)

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Canada Records its First Case on Monkeypox

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The individual sought medical care for mpox (monkeypox) symptoms.

Canada’s Department of Public Health confirmed on Friday that the country’s first mpox (monkeypox) incidence occurred in Manitoba.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, this travel-related case is tied to a continuing mpox outbreak in central and eastern Africa.

“The individual sought medical care in Canada for mpox symptoms shortly after their return and is currently isolating,” the agency stated.

The Public Health Agency of Canada works closely with Manitoba’s public health authorities. The National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) informed the province on November 22 that the sample tested positive for mpox (monkeypox),” the agency stated.

The World Health Organization stated earlier in the day that the mpox outbreak remains a public health emergency.

In August, the WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following the spread of a new version of the virus, known as Mpox clade Ib, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighboring nations.

MPox is a viral illness that spreads by close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled sores. It is typically moderate, but it can be fatal.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said that while the danger to Canada’s general population is low, it constantly monitors the situation. It further stated that a public health investigation, including contact tracing, is underway.

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A Canadian Teenager’s Bird Flu Virus Has Mutations

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HealthDay

(VOR News) – Health experts have warned that the Bird Flu virus identified in Vancouver has undergone alterations that may increase its transmissibility to humans, a circumstance that Canadian officials believe could occur.

“No additional cases have been identified” after monitoring many potential contacts among the adolescent’s friends, family, and healthcare providers; however, there is no indication that the single Canadian teen is the only one infected with this specific mutant H5N1. Brenda Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer,

Bird Flu

Dr. Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle told CNN that this is “undoubtedly one of the initial instances where we have observed evidence of such adaptive mutations in H5”.

Bloom observed that the teen’s symptoms began one week before hospitalization, giving the Bird Flu extra time to strengthen its capacity to infiltrate the desired cells.

Significantly, the calf is in critical but stable condition, having contracted a different strain of the virus than the one that affects dairy calves in the United States. An H5N1 strain is circulating throughout Pacific Northwest wild bird populations.

Because there was no documented link with wild birds, Canadian officials are still unsure how the adolescent contracted the illness.

The three discovered alterations in the Canadian example are determined to be at specific regions on the genome, which would improve binding to human cells.

“Numerous influenza virologists, myself included, have observed it due of certain sequences exhibiting indications of mutations that concern us,” he said.

Following a toddler in Alameda County who was exhibiting minor upper respiratory symptoms, California determined the child may have Bird Flu. According to a news release from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the young person is recovering at home following treatment.

Although the patient has had no recorded interaction with an affected animal, the CDPH reports that health officials are investigating possible exposure to wild birds. In addition, they reported, “the positive test indicated a low-level detection of the virus, suggesting the child was unlikely to be infectious to others.”

Four days later, the youngster’s next bird flu test returned negative; further research found that the child tested positive for respiratory infections, which could be causing their Bird Flu and cold symptoms. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will collect test specimens for the next investigation.

California officials emphasized that, despite the reported occurrence, the public health risk remained extremely low.

“We aim to reassure parents, caregivers, and families that, according to our information and data, we do not believe the child was infectious, and no human-to-human transmission of bird flu has been recorded in any country for over 15 years,” stated Dr. Tomás Aragón, head of the CDPH. “It is normal for people to show concern.”

According to the CDC, 53 Americans had confirmed instances of avian flu, with all but one being exposed to contaminated poultry or dairy cows.

In the California example, all of the child’s relatives tested negative, and there is no evidence that the virus moved from person to person.

Dairy cows

The virus first appeared in a pig last month. Seven states have already verified cases of avian influenza, with Oregon reporting the first human case last week. Most incidents have occurred among farmworkers.

California has the state’s largest confirmed human avian influenza infection count, with 27 cases reported (excluding the infant from Alameda County). According to CDC records, there are 11 cases in Washington and 10 in Colorado.

Recent developments have heightened public health experts’ concerns about the prospect of the avian flu virus spreading from person to person.

Since March, the disease has spread to approximately 600 dairy farms in 15 states nationwide. Bird flu has been frequent among domestic and wild birds in the United States for several years.

Dr. James Lawler, co-director of the University of Nebraska’s Global Center for Health Security, recently told the New York Times that “we should be very concerned at this juncture.” “We ought to allocate considerable resources to ascertain the situation, but at this time there is no need for alarm.”

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Pancreatic Cancer Among Young People Is No Longer Alarming.

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Pancreatic Cancer

(VOR News) – Experts have voiced apprehension regarding the increasing incidence of pancreatic cancer among youth; nevertheless, a recent study reveals that this surge in diagnoses has not been paralleled by a commensurate increase in mortality rates attributed to the disease.

What is the reason? Researchers assert that contemporary, more sensitive imaging scans may identify early, non-fatal occurrences of pancreatic cancer in individuals under 40 that were previously undiscovered.

Researchers have noted growing concerns from several registries regarding the rising prevalence of pancreatic cancer among young individuals, especially women, in the United States and worldwide. “While some ascribe this trend to rising obesity rates, others have identified no discernible cause.”

Analyzing the data

The statistics on pancreatic cancer conflate endocrine malignancies and adenocarcinomas, which are two entirely different tumor forms occurring in the same organ.

The first form generally requires years to develop and increase, whereas the second type is characteristically aggressive and spreads rapidly.

The rising prevalence of pancreatic cancer among younger Americans is mostly attributed to an enhanced diagnosis of smaller, early-stage endocrine tumors rather than an escalation in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cases, the researchers noted.

The declining mortality rate of pancreatic cancer, juxtaposed with the rising incidence of new cases, implies that the recent surge in early-onset pancreatic cancer indicates the identification of previously undiagnosed disease rather than an actual rise in cancer prevalence.

Researchers, under the leadership of Dr. Vishal Patel, a surgical resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, acknowledged the increasing incidence of pancreatic cancer among young individuals. Their research, published on Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, contains the following information:

Pancreatic cancer operations

Restricting the increase of tumors in their first stages is a significant point to consider. This data indicates a phenomenon termed overdiagnosis, characterized by a rise in mortality that does not correspond with the increase in case numbers.

More dangerous adenocarcinomas are occasionally identified at an earlier stage during abdomen scans conducted for unrelated reasons. Conversely, the study’s authors assert that the prevalence of adenocarcinomas among young individuals has remained constant across all stages of the disease.

Meanwhile, the researchers indicated that CT scans and MRIs, which are increasingly sensitive and utilized for a broader range of applications than before, can identify less malignant endocrine tumors in the pancreas.

Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a senior researcher at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, stated to the New York Times, which published the findings, “The more you are imaged, the more these issues will arise.”

Upon discovery of any issue, both individuals and medical professionals may feel compelled to act.

Dr. Folasade May, a gastroenterologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, stated in an interview with the Times, “Occasionally, we observe anomalies on imaging that necessitate further investigation.” “Ultimately, they may necessitate significant surgical intervention.”

Patients needing surgery

As indicated by the doubling of pancreatic cancer surgical interventions among patients aged 25-34, there has been a substantial increase in surgical interventions for pancreatic cancer among young patients as well.

Dr. Adewole Adamson, a specialist in overdiagnosis at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the paper, stated, “Many patients express a desire for removal.” “Upon receiving a cancer diagnosis, one feels compelled to take action.”

Patients and clinicians should be aware of the following considerations in the future.

The research team states, “Pancreatic cancer may now be subject to overdiagnosis, referring to the identification of disease that is unlikely to result in symptoms or mortality.” “Overdiagnosis is particularly alarming in the context of pancreatic cancer, given that pancreatic surgery carries significant risks of morbidity and mortality.”

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