Puberty
Sometimes a person's body is wrong for their gender identity. They may have male sex organs but feel that they are a female, or they may have female sex organs but identify as male. Medical operations by doctors and hormone pills can change the body, but those operations are not done on young people. Instead, doctors can give drugs that slow down or stop puberty so the person has more time to decide what to do. As of 2023, some states in the United States say doctors cannot give these drugs to young people. The talk about these drugs has become very political. These drugs were usually made for other reasons, such as stopping cancer. These drugs can also be used if a child starts puberty at a very early age, such as 7 or 8. The name for that situation is "precocious puberty." Going through puberty too early creates medical and psychological problems. The person might not grow as tall as they could. They might feel very different from their friends and other children in school. Girls who go through puberty early have a bigger chance of being sexually assaulted. They also have a bigger chance of becoming pregnant while still a young teenager. There might be a bigger chance that later in life they might get a cancer such as breast cancer, because there is a higher risk associated with the number of years in between when the woman went through puberty (usually defined as menarche for studies) and the first time she has a baby. Studies have shown that early-maturing boys are more likely to be sexually active and are more likely to participate in risky behaviors.