Gender-Affirming Care

The execrable gender ideologue Admiral Rachel Levine is no longer in government. That’s great news in the long run for children with gender dysphoria, because the new administration wants to actually protect these disturbed minors. Accordingly, President Trump today signed an executive order protecting such children from being subjected to often irreparable body-altering “gender-affirming care.” From the order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation:”

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.

Excellent.

The American medical establishment remains radically committed to the misnamed “gender-affirming care” model, refusing to even consider following the examples of the U.K., Sweden, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, France, Norway, and others whose health ministries have hit the brakes hard on providing puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries to gender dysphoric children.

Example: The current New England Journal of Medicine published a “Perspectives” screed attacking the Cass Review — widely respected for its thorough investigation of the lack of significant data supporting puberty blocking of gender dysphoric children. From “The Future of Gender Affirming Care“:

Our concern here is that the Review transgresses medical law, policy, and practice, which puts it at odds with all mainstream U.S. expert guidelines. The report deviates from pharmaceutical regulatory standards in the United Kingdom. And if it had been published in the United States, where it has been invoked frequently, it would have violated federal law because the authors failed to adhere to legal requirements protecting the integrity of the scientific process.

Fresh off publishing an unsubstantial attack on the Cass Review that recommended against puberty blockers for gender dysphoric youth, the New England Journal of Medicine offers an advocacy piece demanding that prisoners claiming to be transgender be given free “transition surgeries.” From “Gender-Affirming Surgical Care in Carceral Settings“: Several U.S. courts have held that access to gender-affirming care during incarceration is a trans person’s right. This conclusion is reflected in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) clinical guidance, which governs clinical care provision within federal carceral facilities, which house an estimated 1200 trans people. The BOP, whose guidance often sets the standard for health care delivery in state and local carceral facilities, recommends provision of gender-affirming care during incarceration, including Read More ›

The tide is really turning against the gender ideologues who advocate experimenting on the bodies of children as a supposedly “medically necessary” treatment. Now, Italy’s National Bioethics Committee has recommended substantially ending the use of puberty-blocking drugs as a “treatment” for childhood gender confusion. From the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine’s press release: Excellent. If the government follows the advice of its bioethics commission, Italy will join a burgeoning list of countries — which includes the U.K., France, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France, and Denmark actively taking steps to end the madness. Once the execrable Admiral Levine is out of office as Trump reenters the presidency, I expect the U.S. to follow suit. That will leave the American medical establishment and a short Read More ›

It is increasingly clear that there is little scientific basis for administering puberty blockers to gender-dysphoric youth. Consequently, many European countries have now effectively banned their use outside of official studies. Now, the New Zealand Ministry of Health has similarly found that there is a “dearth” of evidence supporting blocking normal adolescence in youngsters who feel that their gender is different from their sex. The New Zealand study reviewed all the literature on the question published before September 30, 2023. In other words, it was a study of the findings of published studies. First, it found that studies claiming that puberty blockers helped ease depression were of very poor quality. From “Impact of Puberty Blockers in Gender-Dysphoric Adolescents” (my emphasis): Impact of puberty blockers on Read More ›