A coalition of pediatricians, health policy groups and conservative organizations has called on medical professionals to stop promoting transgender medical treatments for children.
The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) and allied groups styling themselves as “Doctors Protecting Children” have published a declaration urging mainstream American medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics to abandon support for so-called “gender-affirming care” for transgender youths.
“As physicians, together with nurses, psychotherapists and behavioral health clinicians, other health professionals, scientists, researchers, and public health and policy professionals, we have serious concerns about the physical and mental health effects of the current protocols promoted for the care of children and adolescents in the United States who express discomfort with their biological sex,” the declaration states.
Affirming that sex is a biological characteristic and that medical decisions “should not be based upon an individual’s thoughts and feelings,” including their self-professed “gender identity,” the groups assert that what is currently accepted as best practice treatments for gender dysphoria is actually harmful for patients. Their view is disputed by the larger medical community, which has established that gender is a social construct, not an inborn biological realty, and that validation and affirmation of a person’s internal self-identity are in their best interest.
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A coalition called “Doctors Protecting Children” argues that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments and other “gender-affirming care” for transgender children and adolescents lack evidence showing their effectiveness as treatments for gender dysphoria.
The American Medical Association (AMA), for instance, states on its website that “improving access to gender-affirming care is an important means of improving health outcomes for the transgender population.”
“Receipt of gender-affirming care has been linked to dramatically reduced rates of suicide attempts, decreased rates of depression and anxiety, decreased substance use, improved HIV medication adherence and reduced rates of harmful self-prescribed hormone use,” the APA claims.
The government, through the Department of Health and Human Services, also supports transgender medical procedures for children and adolescents, calling it a “supportive form of health care that may include medical, surgical, mental health and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people.”
“Research demonstrates that gender-affirming care improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender-diverse children and adolescents,” the Office of Population Affairs (OASH) at HHS has said.
However, several European countries, including the U.K., Sweden, Finland, Norway and France, have pushed back on the use of puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgery for children and adolescents. The U.K. last year, for instance, announced a rollback on the availability of hormone treatments, limiting them to clinical trials exclusively.
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In contrast to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standards of care for transsexual, transgender and gender-nonconforming people, Doctors Protecting Children argues that permitting children to socially transition before puberty does not improve their mental health and social well-being outcomes.
The declaration cites various studies to support its claims, including the Cass Review, a controversial independent report commissioned by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service that documented practices and care for children reporting gender identity disorders.
Named for its primary author, Dr. Hilary Cass, the 388-page review found medical professionals reported “no guidance, no evidence, no training” regarding gender disorders and were “afraid” to discuss the topic. It concluded that evidence supporting transgender medical treatments for children and adolescents was “remarkably weak.”
The Cass Review has been criticized by WPATH and transgender rights groups, which claim it ignored recent evidence that supports transgender medical procedures as beneficial for transgender minors and made “assumptions about transgender children and adolescents which are outdated and untrue, which then form the basis of harmful interventions.”
FOXNEWS
