California endocrinologist Dr. Michael Laidlaw observed on Twitter this week that a 2020 preprint of a study on puberty blockers administered to 12-15-year-old gender-dysphoric youth confirmed a “massive decrease in bone density of patients relative to their peers.”

“The graph shows the baseline spine bone density and then the decrease over time,” Laidlaw continued in the thread.

As a “preprint” published online at medRxiv.org, the article, titled “Short-term outcomes of pubertal suppression in a selected cohort of 12 to 15 year old young people with persistent gender dysphoria in the UK,” is new research that has yet to be peer-reviewed.

The lead investigators of the study, which included 44 patients, are from the U.K.’s Tavistock and Portman NHS trust, which operates a “gender identity development service” (GIDS) for children.

“There was no change from baseline in spine BMD [bone mineral density] at 12 months nor in hip BMD at 24 and 36 months, but at 24 months lumbar spine BMC [bone mineral content] and BMD were higher than at baseline …,” the researchers wrote.

Laidlaw responded, however, that the authors appear to be stating the “tiny increase in BMC is “a good thing.”

“It’s not, it’s terrible,” he asserted. “It indicates a pathologic process.”

“This is because of the drop in sex hormones caused by GnRH agonists (puberty blockers) which directly poison the pituitary and stops the NORMAL function,” he continued. “That function is to direct girls’ ovaries to make estrogen or boys’ testicles to make testosterone.”

“This ‘treatment’ with puberty blockers is leading these adolescents to a much higher risk of early osteoporosis and fractures,” Laidlaw noted. “But again, like everything in the pro-transing industry, words are meant to deceive. Bone density should NOT BE MAINTAINED during adolescence it should be BUILDING!”

The endocrinologist pointed to a graph depicting normal bone building, specifically observing the “massive INCREASE in adolescence.”

“But puberty blockers flat-line this normal process,” Laidlaw said. “THE FLAT LINE HERE IS ABNORMAL AND HARMFUL.” He warned:

Once again, the trans industry sets out to deceive patients, parents, and the legal system to push their drug (high dose hormone & pituitary blocker) based ideology. Bones that should be rapidly building were blocked from doing so. NORMAL PHYSIOLOGIC FUNCTION WAS PATHOLOGICALLY ALTERED by puberty blockers.

In July 2019, endocrinologist Dr. Will Malone also observed that humans “acquire more than half the bone density they will ever have during their teen years.”

“This is the most critical time for long term bone/skeletal health,” he explained, continuing that puberty blockers stop “the rapid increase in bone density that should be occurring during this critical time.”

As Breitbart News reported December 1, in the U.K., children under 16 years of age may no longer obtain puberty blockers unless they can demonstrate they have an understanding of the risks and costs of taking the drugs.

In a landmark judgment in the case of a lawsuit brought against Tavistock and Portman NHS trust, the High Court ruled that both puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones, which many gender dysphoric children go on to take after puberty blockers, are experimental treatments for which they need to consult the Court for authorization.