A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends therapy for minors with gender dysphoria rather than immediately turning to body mutilating surgery and hormone treatment.
Pediatric gender medicine, according to the report,is exceptional in several ways:
The diagnosis of gender dysphoria is based entirely on subjective self-reports and behavioral observations, without any objective physical, imaging, or laboratory markers.
The diagnosis centers on attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that are known to fluctuate during adolescence.T
The natural history of pediatric gender dysphoria is poorly understood, though existing research suggests it will remit without intervention in most cases.
The “gender-affirming” model of care includes irreversible endocrine and surgical interventions on minors with no physical pathology.
The interventions carry risk of significant harms yet systematic reviews of the evidence have revealed deep uncertainty about the purported benefits of these interventions.
The 409-page report from HHS states, “Psychotherapy is a noninvasive alternative to endocrine and surgical interventions for the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria. Systematic reviews of evidence have found no evidence of adverse effects of psychotherapy in this context.”
The report emphasizes that the permanent procedures and body chemistry-altering drugs used in transgender treatments and surgeries “carry risk of significant harms,” that can lead to infertility, lower bone density, and heart disease.
“The evidence for benefit of pediatric medical transition is very uncertain, while the evidence for harm is less uncertain. When medical interventions pose unnecessary, disproportionate risks of harm, healthcare providers should refuse to offer them even when they are preferred, requested, or demanded by patients,” the report reads. “Failure to do so increases the risk of iatrogenic harm and reduces medicine to consumerism, threatening the integrity of the profession and undermining trust in medical authority.”
In January, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, stating that U.S. policy was not to fund “the so-called ’transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”
“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding. Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”
“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Following the Executive Order, HHS established a dedicated tip line for whistleblowers to report cases of chemical and surgical sex change procedures performed on minors.
The new tip line allows individuals to report concerns related to the administration of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex change surgeries on children.
Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, explained the common-sense approach in a statement: “Our duty is to protect our nation’s children, not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions.”
“We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
Read the full report here.
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