Two major studies show that “gender-affirming treatments” are quack medicine

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Thanks to these latest findings, the U.K. and other European countries are now pulling back on not just medical and surgical transitions for children but social transitions as well. Will the U.S. ever wake up?

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Over the past several months, a number of studies and whistleblower accounts have lifted the veil on the narrative that so-called “gender affirming” treatments in children are safe, reversible, and beneficial or that these treatments are supported by strong evidence.

Most significantly, Dr. Hilary Cass released her final report commissioned by the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) on how to improve gender identity services for children and adolescents.

In this landmark review, released two weeks ago, Dr. Cass concluded that any evidence showing that medical treatments actually resolve the underlying gender dysphoria is “remarkably weak” and that the majority of the new global treatment protocols are built off of recommendations that failed to follow international standards for guideline development.

She encouraged medical professionals to take a holistic approach to treating those with feelings of discomfort about their sex and advised against rushing to use puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones in those under 18.

This final review follows an interim report first released in 2022 showing that medical professionals at the U.K.’s Tavistock Clinic, the nation’s primary gender treatment clinic, had failed to exercise caution in diagnosing children with gender dysphoria and putting them on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. That review, also conducted by Cass and her team, noted that, in what should have been a red flag, the patient base had suddenly grown from a very small number of young boys to thousands of patients, primarily adolescent girls.

Doctors also largely ignored any other potential issues that might have caused the gender distress and instead fast-tracked patients into treatment with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, despite having no evidence of their efficacy. Doctors also ignored the reality that the vast majority of children eventually come to accept their biological sex.

These findings led the NHS to immediately close the Tavistock Clinic. In March, officials announced that gender clinics will no longer be allowed to prescribe puberty blockers to children unless they are part of a clinical research project. The NHS even cautioned against social transitions, which involve, among other things, using a child’s preferred name or pronouns and treating them as a different gender.

In her final review, Cass concluded that the existing studies lack any evidence or understanding of the short-term and long-term impact of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones on the groups of patients that now make up the majority of those treated, namely young females. The studies that do exist are flawed and do not show a benefit in treating those with gender dysphoria.

As a result, and significantly, Cass is now recommending that the medical establishment stop treating patients who are uncomfortable with their gender any differently than it would treat other patients. She wrote,

“A key message from my review is that gender questioning children and young people seeking help from the NHS must be able to access a broad-based holistic assessment delivered by a multi-professional team. Notwithstanding the pressures on CAMHS and paediatric services, these young people should not receive a lower standard of care than other similarly distressed adolescents. This means access to a wide range of services, including autism diagnostic services, psychosocial support, and evidence based interventions for commonly co-occurring conditions such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Regardless of whether or not they chose a social or medical transition in the longer term, they need support to help them thrive and fulfil their life goals.”

In conducting her review, Cass spoke to numerous people who had experienced gender dysphoria and found that the urgency they felt to be medically transitioned as children faded as they got older. Many wished they had slowed down the process, while others regretted ever transitioning at all.

Cass made numerous other findings in her report, including that gender dysphoric patients need to be treated for their other mental health and psychosocial problems rather than just their gender discomfort.

Finally, she recommended that doctors use extreme caution when treating gender dysphoric patients, stating that there must be a clear clinical rationale for prescribing cross-sex hormones to those under 18. She also recommended that NHS provide follow-up services to those ages 17 to 25 and collect follow-up data and that there be programs and help for detransitioners.

In the short time since this NHS report came out, there has been tremendous fallout. For one, Scotland has officially directed the country’s sole gender clinic for children to stop prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

On the other hand, the report itself has been attacked online by transgender activists, and Cass herself has been subjected to a number of personal threats, so vile, in fact, that she has been advised by U.K. security services to avoid public transportation. This reaction lines up with her original claim that adult gender clinics attempted to thwart her review, refusing to turn over data. Six of the seven adult transgender clinic trusts refused to comply. Cass said she received “significant opposition” from the adult gender dysphoria clinics, which was “ideologically driven.”

Now, NHS says it will conduct a similar style review on adult transgender clinic practices. “We will be launching a review into the operation and delivery of the adult GDCs, alongside the planned review of the adult gender dysphoria service specification,” a letter stated.

“It will be external, rather than done in-house. It will be led by someone external. It will be fairly similar to what Cass did with children’s services, but this time it will be looking at adult services,” NHS sources say.

NHS says the review is necessary because of “concerns put to the [Cass] review team by current and former staff working in the adult gender clinics about clinical practice, particularly in regard to individuals with complex co-presentations and undiagnosed conditions.”

NHS also cited “an increasing incidence of individuals seeking to ‘detransition’ following previous gender affirming interventions and the absence of a consistent, defined clinical approach for them.”

The NHS review follows a Dutch study published on February 27 showing that a patient’s gender discontent rarely persists into adulthood. The study, which was conducted over 25 years and tracked 2,772 participants, found that 98 percent of those surveyed reported either no discontent with their gender or less discontent as adults than when they were first asked between ages 10-12. In the abstract of the report, the authors stated,

“Gender non-contentedness, while being relatively common during early adolescence, in general decreases with age and appears to be associated with a poorer self-concept and mental health throughout development.”

The study is noteworthy for being one of the few long-term studies into the effects of gender transitions on minors.

Both the NHS and Dutch findings affirm the results of numerous other studies showing that a minor’s distress over gender rarely remains into adulthood.

Some detransitioners say they feel vindicated by the move by European countries to restrict gender transitions in minors.

Chloe Cole, 19, who filed a lawsuit against the hospital that performed her gender transition treatments as a minor, including a double mastectomy, stated, “These revelations are hugely vindicating. It’s frustrating that it has taken this long, but I’m thankful that this is finally becoming a mainstream conversation, and people are finally starting to wake up to what we are doing to children.”

Another detransitioner, Airiel Salvatore, a biological male who previously identified as a woman, who began hormone treatments in 2005, and who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2014, says that “Europe seems to be ahead of the curve. It seems that here the clinics are more ideologically captured. It’s almost like they don’t want to know the answer because this whole entire thing is really just running on maladaptive empathy.”

Cole agreed, saying, “The U.S. is more motivated by money and politics, and this has been made into a major political tool, especially by the left.”

The detransitioners’ views are reinforced by whistleblower accounts claiming that medical facilities were rushing children to transition, hiding negative responses, and refusing to rationally look at evidence.

Jamie Reed, a gay woman who is actually married to a transgender person, worked at Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital for four years. While there she claims the hospital told her to stop expressing concerns, even banning her from using the phrase “I have concerns.”

Eithan Haim is a surgeon who formerly worked at Texas Children’s Hospital before releasing documentation showing that the hospital was violating state law by transitioning children, even after releasing a public statement saying that it would no longer provide transgender treatments.

The two recently appeared on the “Dr. Phil” show, where they discussed what they had witnessed and why they decided to come forward.

Haim said the hospital used drug delivery implants to administer puberty blockers or hormones in children as young as 11 years old.

In reference to prestigious medical leaders advocating for transgender transitions in minors, Haim said he thinks that is probably the most difficult thing for people to understand. “You have all these prestigious institutions, all these prestigious hospitals, who are signing off on this and endorsing it. But the fact is, it’s not based on any evidence, it’s not based on any logical reasoning. They can’t even define the terms in which they’re seeking to intervene on, and this is not medicine.”

Since blowing the whistle on the hospital, Haim has been informed he is under investigation by the Department of Justice and the Department for Health and Human Services.

Reed claims that children claiming to be a different gender would see a therapist for one visit, see the endocrinologist for one visit, and then “end up with hormones that would impact and change their bodies for their lifetime.” She recalled that many times children who had gone through surgeries would call the hospital begging them to put the surgically removed body parts back on.

The surge in children seeking gender transitions, the monumental shift in patient base from a small number of very young boys to massive numbers of adolescent girls, and numerous studies showing that children become comfortable with their sex as they transition to adulthood should make it an undeniable fact that this is a social contagion, a manufactured mass psychological phenomena, rather than a state of being born in the wrong body, something that isn’t possible.

A very large percentage of children who believe they are the wrong sex have other mental health issues or trauma that is going untreated. Many are autistic. As Reed noted, often clusters of girls, entire friend groups, will suddenly identify as transgender.

Puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender surgeries cause a plethora of adverse effects. The testimonies of detransitioners are creating a mountain of horror stories so high it can no longer be hidden.

Given all of this, medical professionals who continue to participate in such experimental, irreversible treatments on children are guilty of malpractice — either because they are willfully ignoring data that is crucial to patient care in their field or because they continue to act against their patients’ best interest out of fear, greed, or commitment to a twisted ideology.

There is no world in which a trained medical professional could ethically sign on to such horrific, mutilating, life-destroying treatments, and the fact that they are being directed to do so by those major U.S. medical associations, regulatory agencies, and healthcare institutions that have been ideologically captured by the LGBTQ movement is no excuse.

Children are impressionable, fickle, and emotional and often want to have and do things that will harm them. They cannot possibly understand the gravity of a decision to medically or surgically transition. A child who believes they are in the wrong body is a child who needs a loving hand to guide them to the truth, not a sterile one wrapped in a latex glove leading them to the operating table. No child should be subjected to this horror.

The U.K. and other European countries are finally recognizing this. When will America wake up?

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