Kid in L.A. given estrogen now sues Los Angeles County's juvenile detention facilities.

[workswithseed 2,110]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/boy-16-was-given-estrogen-for-behavioral-disorder-while-in-la-juvenile-hall-suit-alleges/ar-BB16LlYB

 

Juvenile hall in Los Angeles in 2014. (Christina House / For The Times)

A 16-year-old boy being held at a Los Angeles County juvenile hall developed enlarged breasts after he was prescribed estrogen to treat a behavioral disorder, a move that baffled doctors who said the treatment defied medical logic, according to a lawsuit filed last month.

The teen, whose identity is being withheld because of his age, was diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, two days after he was arrested and housed at Eastlake Juvenile Hall in June 2019, the lawsuit said. Medical records reviewed by The Times show that the teen's testosterone levels were "slightly high" when the doctor who diagnosed him prescribed daily doses of estrogen.

Estrogen regulates the development of female sexual characteristics and reproduction. Men produce the hormone at much lower levels.

After taking approximately 13 daily doses of the hormone, the teen was diagnosed with gynecomastia, defined as the enlargement or swelling of breast tissue in males whose estrogen level is too high, medical records show.

ODD, a behavioral condition that is sometimes suffered by patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is normally treated with therapy, said James McGough, a professor of clinical psychiatry at UCLA.

“Estrogen is not a treatment for ODD. I can’t be more emphatic about that," McGough said. "You won’t find a reference anywhere that supports the use of estrogen for ODD."

The lawsuit described the treatment as "experimental." The doctor who prescribed the estrogen, Danny Wang, could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles County's juvenile detention facilities are overseen by the Probation Department. Medical needs are provided by Juvenile Court Health Services, which falls under the county Department of Health Services. In an e-mail, a Department of Health Services representative confirmed that Wang has been employed by the county since 2012 but declined to comment on his current status with the agency, describing it as a "confidential personnel matter." The department declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The suit — which names as defendants the county, Wang and David Oh, medical director of Juvenile Court Health Services — alleges medical battery and negligence.

Probation officials and the teen's attorney, Wesley Ouchi, declined to say why he was in custody. Ouchi said the boy, now 17, was released in April and will require surgery to treat the physical issues he developed as a result of the estrogen treatment.

Wang prescribed a daily regimen of 2 milligrams of estrogen to be taken in pill form, according to medical records. The boy's parents were not aware that he had been diagnosed with ODD or was undergoing treatment until late July 2019. Doctors said the treatments should not have been carried out without the parents' consent.

The boy's father, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his son's identity, said he found out about the estrogen pills when he visited the juvenile hall one weekend last July.

“When I found out they were giving him the pill, I was like, why didn’t they ask me? When I found out what kind of pill was it, I was like, this is terrible," the father said. "He’s only 16, and they were forcing him to take it.”

The father said he later confronted Oh, the medical director, over the phone. Oh admitted that Wang had made "a mistake," the father said. The health services representative declined to comment on Oh's alleged remark due to the ongoing litigation.

The treatments stopped last July, after the teen began to complain of negative side effects and refused medication, records show. Prior to that, Ouchi said, his client felt compelled to take the pills because he feared that disobeying Wang would have a detrimental effect on his pending criminal case.

Reports from probation officers about a youth's time in custody can carry significant weight at sentencing hearings, and the teen's case had not been adjudicated at the time Wang prescribed him the estrogen, Ouchi said.

Ouchi also alleges the boy was bullied by other youths in custody once his gynecomastia symptoms developed.

“As a teenager, he felt self-conscious already," Ouchi said. "Going through these changes made it a lot more traumatic for him.”

Sara Coffey, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Oklahoma State University, said ODD is normally diagnosed in children between the ages of 6 and 12. Children diagnosed with the disorder often struggle with authority, in school or in social settings. Common treatments include family therapy or medications that have had success in aiding juveniles with ADHD, including Ritalin and Adderall.

Using hormones to treat ODD might actually worsen the situation, Coffey said.

“The other concern I have, as a psychiatrist, is that we know hormones play a role in mood," she said. "If his mood got disrupted, that could only further complicate things.”

Estrogen is normally stocked at L.A. County juvenile facilities for use as part of hormone therapy for contraception and treatment of gender dysphoria, according to the health services representative.

The boy's father said the hormone therapy has had a long-term effect on his son, who now scares easily and has become antisocial.

"He’s like a different person. He just wants to be in his room, and he don’t come out for nothing, all day in his room," the father said. "He was never like that.”

[Armybrat 40,893]

He should have been prescribed a few swift kicks in the ass to be administered periodically instead of female hormones.

[Sbbruin 21,867]

[Blotto 23,570]

oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, sounds like a load of horseshit to me. 

[Samson's Wig 3,194]

We have some friends with a ten year old boy who is having some wild emotional swings involving lots of tears and overblown emotional outbursts.  His mother keeps blaming it on too much testosterone.  The kid is chunky and already has manboobs.  I've often wondered if it's not too much estrogen.  Maybe the juvenile delinquent in this story just needed an extra testosterone boost to chill the fuck out, rather than a hormone I think we can all agree just leads to more irrational and destructive behavior. 

[Deej 76,903]

Kid sounds like a little bitch. 

[BabaYaga 15,312]

[RPM 26,351]

HFCS is responsible for a lot of this shit. We need to get back to a less processed diet. The body wasn't designed to process this crap.

[troph 24,905]

Damn, if I coulda said ODD and gotten estrogen at 16 I would have. Btw 1 mg of estrogen was amazing. By 2mg I was on my way to heaven and yeah boobs. Yay boobs! And my body was extremely receptive but no where near as receptive as a 16 years old. Mood swings yes, crying and all of it. Up to 3mg before anything stabilized. Even now five years later, I’m only on 4mg of estrogen as a stable long term dose.

The point being 2mg of estrogen for a cis gender 16 year old boy will fuck him up.

[elfenix 34,332]

15 minutes ago, RPM said:

HFCS is responsible for a lot of this shit. We need to get back to a less processed diet. The body wasn't designed to process this crap.

 

Quote

They found a very surprising correlation: A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher. In other words, people today are about 10 percent heavier than people were in the 1980s, even if they follow the exact same diet and exercise plans.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/why-it-was-easier-to-be-skinny-in-the-1980s/407974/

 

despite the article title, the why isn't really answered

[troph 24,905]

weight reduces testosterone and some synthetic substances act like estrogen on the body so there's that too.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, sounds like a load of horseshit to me. 

Yeah it's the new name for "being an asshole."

[Js1 85,564]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, sounds like a load of horseshit to me. 

My nephew was diagnosed with this. Told my sister he’s just an asshole bc she’s a shitty parent. (She did not disagree) 

[troph 24,905]

It’s real, and it doesn’t have to be parenting related but if you don’t parent the heck out of them upon discovery or emergence of it then it gets a lot worse (pre-cursor to conduct disorder which is highly common among inmates relative to the general population).

[ABSR 5,323]

32 minutes ago, elfenix said:

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/why-it-was-easier-to-be-skinny-in-the-1980s/407974/

 

despite the article title, the why isn't really answered

 

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2010/03/22/sweet-problem-princeton-researchers-find-high-fructose-corn-syrup-prompts#:~:text=A Princeton University research team,caloric intake was the same.

“When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.”

[workswithseed 2,110]

42 minutes ago, troph said:

Damn, if I coulda said ODD and gotten estrogen at 16 I would have. Btw 1 mg of estrogen was amazing. By 2mg I was on my way to heaven and yeah boobs. Yay boobs! And my body was extremely receptive but no where near as receptive as a 16 years old. Mood swings yes, crying and all of it. Up to 3mg before anything stabilized. Even now five years later, I’m only on 4mg of estrogen as a stable long term dose.

The point being 2mg of estrogen for a cis gender 16 year old boy will fuck him up.

Yeah, estrogen can give males cancer and could make them infertile. That's scary stuff.

[Armybrat 40,893]

Well, I still got moobs (sorry Troph, no pics) from too much bbq & TexMex. 

[troph 24,905]

Yeah, estrogen can give males cancer and could make them infertile. That's scary stuff.

I have three boys any additional certainty of infertility is a plus in my book. Cancer risk is overstated if you are taking estrogen because you need it. Breast cancer is a female risk. Something you have to deal with.

[workswithseed 2,110]

22 minutes ago, troph said:

I have three boys any additional certainty of infertility is a plus in my book. Cancer risk is overstated if you are taking estrogen because you need it. Breast cancer is a female risk. Something you have to deal with.

Ha, not if you didn't want breasts in the first place. Not everyone is a Jerry.

[troph 24,905]

Ha, not if you didn't want breasts in the first place. Not everyone is a Jerry.

Duh. But the OP? Completely abuse. Maybe even cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of constitutional rights.

[troph 24,905]

Had a friend in high school, total crass guy. He once bantered if I had my own tits I’d never leave my bedroom I’d just play with them all day long. I thought he might be on to something. He also said if he had a dog’s flexibility he’d never leave his room for that either. Another good point.

[Bigbend1812 12,927]

You down with ODD?

[SDG 3,319]

5 minutes ago, troph said:

Had a friend in high school, total crass guy. He once bantered if I had my own tits I’d never leave my bedroom I’d just play with them all day long. I thought he might be on to something. He also said if he had a dog’s flexibility he’d never leave his room for that either. Another good point.

Well that doesn’t sound like a very productive society.  Good, but not productive.  

[RPM 26,351]

3 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Well, I still got moobs (sorry Troph, no pics) from too much bbq & TexMex. 

[Armybrat 40,893]

1 hour ago, troph said:

Duh. But the OP? Completely abuse. Maybe even cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of constitutional rights.

Jailhouse prescriptions, especially for minors, should be very carefully scrutinized. 

[troph 24,905]

Jailhouse prescriptions, especially for minors, should be very carefully scrutinized. 

If parents still have parental rights I don’t see how you should be able to overrule them.

[Clintonaldo 2,576]

5 hours ago, Bigbend1812 said:

You down with ODD?

Every big tittied homie 

[Ellellelle 314]

oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, sounds like a load of horseshit to me. 

It's a real thing, someone else said it but it's a precursor to conduct disorder. It's very similar to someone with a personality disorder. Lots of addicts had ODD as a kid.

[MagicSoccerSpray 1,732]

On 7/17/2020 at 1:07 PM, elfenix said:

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/why-it-was-easier-to-be-skinny-in-the-1980s/407974/

 

despite the article title, the why isn't really answered

 

 

IMO it is due to pervasive AC. When the body doesn't have to work as hard to regulate it's temperature, it stores excess energy as fat.