They can improve the sense of smell by increasing the area available to absorb airborne chemicals, and they can warm and moisten inhaled air, and extract heat and moisture from exhaled air to prevent desiccation of the lungs. Olfactory turbinates are found in all living tetrapods, and respiratory turbinates are found in most mammals and birds. Animals with respiratory turbinates can breathe faster without drying out their lungs, and consequently can have a faster metabolism. For example, when the emu exhales, its nasal turbinates condense moisture from the air and absorbs it for reuse. Dogs and other canids possess well-developed nasal turbinates. These turbinates allow for heat exchange between small arteries and veins on their maxilloturbinate (turbinates positioned on maxilla bone) surfaces in a counter-current heat-exchange system. Dogs are capable of prolonged chases, in contrast to the ambush predation of cats, and these complex turbinates play an important role in enabling this (cats only possess a much smaller and less-developed set of nasal turbinates). This same complex turbinate structure help conserve water in arid environments. The water conservation and thermoregulatory capabilities of these well-developed turbinates in dogs may have been crucial adaptations that allowed dogs (including both domestic dogs and their wild prehistoric gray wolf ancestors) to survive in the harsh Arctic environment and other cold areas of northern Eurasia and North America, which are both very dry and very cold.Reptiles and more primitive synapsids have olfactory turbinates that are involved in sensing smell rather than preventing desiccation.
Some medical professionals disagree that adolescents are cognitively mature enough to make a decision with regard to hormone therapy or surgery, and advise that irreversible genital procedures should not be performed on individuals under the age of legal consent in their respective country.A review published in Child and Adolescent Mental Health found that puberty blockers are fully reversible, and that they are associated with such positive outcomes as decreased suicidality in adulthood, improved affect and psychological functioning, and improved social life.In 2020, a review article commissioned by NHS England was published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, concluding that the quality of evidence for puberty blocker outcomes (for mental health, quality of life and impact on gender dysphoria) was of very low certainty based on the GRADE scale. In the UK, Bell v Tavistock considered the case of a patient who had changed her mind, now believing she was too young to have made such a decision, and concluded "Where the decision is significant and life changing then there is a greater onus to ensure that the child understands and is able to weigh the information". Following the ruling, NHS England announced that children under 16 would no longer be given puberty blockers without court authorization.