Britain's new Labour government plans to continue the ban on puberty blockers ordered by the Tories."We will always put the safety of children first," said Secretary for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting. He cited the Cass Review, which "found there was insufficient evidence to show puberty blockers were safe for under 18s."
European countries have backed away from "gender affirming care" for minors, writes columnist Pamela Paul in the New York Times. Like British leaders, they've decided to "follow the science." The U.S. medical establishment is following the politics.
Dr. Hilary Cass, one of Britain’s top pediatricians, analyzed the research on "gender-affiring care" and found "no definitive proof" that popular treatments -- social transition, puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones -- alleviate gender dysphoria, Paul writes. "There is no clear evidence that transitioning kids decreases the likelihood that gender dysphoric youths will turn to suicide, as adherents of gender-affirming care claim."
Until research shows such treatments are effective, Dr. Cass recommended psychological support and counseling for young people.
The report was very influential in Europe, and ignored or dismissed by the U.S. medical establishment. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a U.S.-based advocacy organization whose standards of gender care are followed here, said its research is better, she writes. "But four years ago, WPATH apparently blocked publication of a Johns Hopkins systematic review it had commissioned that also found scant evidence in favor of the gender-affirming approach."
"The United States continues to put ideology ahead of science," writes Paul, despite "growing concerns about the risks and irreversible consequences of gender interventions for youths, including bone density loss, possible infertility, the inability to achieve orgasm and the loss of functional body tissue and organs including breasts, genitals and reproductive organs."
The Biden administration has "ceded the issue to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, incorporating gender-affirming protocols into Department of Health and Human Services policy," she writes.
The assistant secretary of health, Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman, persuaded WPATH to remove age requirements from its guidelines: 14 for cross-sex hormones, 15 for mastectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgery and 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies. "Mixing political and public health concerns," Levine warned in emails that "supporters of gender treatment bans might cite them to show that the procedures are harmful," writes Paul.
Gender-distressed young people and their parents need to know the full truth about what the research shows and does not show, writes Lisa Selin Davis on The Hill. When news broke that WPATH had censored Johns Hopkins' "systematic reviews of so-called 'gender-affirming' care . . . because the work did not reflect well on youth gender transition — it didn’t make waves."
The Biden administration knows most American oppose puberty blockers and "gender-affirming" surgeries for children, but is unwilling to defy transgender activists, writes Leor Sapir in City Journal. (Only 19 percent of voters support “allowing transgender youth access to puberty blockers.”)
The Brits surely have it right: The safety of children should come first.
"Dr. Rachel Levine, a t̶r̶a̶n̶s̶g̶e̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ w̶o̶m̶a̶n̶ man"
Fixed it for you.