The refreshingly sensible American College of Pediatricians (ACP) has urged their fellow physicians to reject the harmful protocols informing so-called “gender-affirming care.”
We call upon the medical professional organizations of the United States “to follow the science and their European professional colleagues and immediately stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex,” writes the ACP in a joint declaration titled “Doctors Protecting Children.”
A number of U.S.-based medical organizations still base their protocols for treating gender dysphoria on the “demonstrably flawed” Standards of Care developed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the Declaration notes.
The Declaration specifically calls out the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for their failure to update their recommendations for treating gender dysphoria in the light of important research revealing the serious defects in the current approach.
“Evidence-based medical research now demonstrates there is little to no benefit from any or all suggested ‘gender affirming’ interventions for adolescents experiencing Gender Dysphoria,” the Declaration states.
On the contrary, social affirmation, puberty blockers, masculinizing or feminizing hormones, and surgeries, individually or in combination, “do not appear to improve long-term mental health of the adolescents, including suicide risk,” research has revealed.
The text cites the meticulous April 10, 2024 Cass Review commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) England and chaired by Dr. Hilary Cass.
The 388-page report utilized systematic reviews, qualitative and quantitative research, as well as focus groups, roundtables and interviews with international clinicians and policy makers.
The report found showed “no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence.”
While multiple studies demonstrate that puberty blockers exert their intended effect in suppressing puberty, “no changes in gender dysphoria or body satisfaction were demonstrated,” the Declaration reveals.
There was, moreover, “insufficient/inconsistent evidence about the effects of puberty suppression on psychological or psychosocial wellbeing, cognitive development, cardio-metabolic risk or fertility.”
The Declaration also underscores the “serious long-term risks associated with the use of social transition, puberty blockers, masculinizing or feminizing hormones, and surgeries, not the least of which is potential sterility.”
Puberty blockers, for instance, “permanently disrupt physical, cognitive, emotional and social development” whereas cross-sex hormone treatments “are associated with dangerous health risks across the lifespan including, but not limited to, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks, blood clots, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.”
Serious medical organization should abandon the misguided WPATH Standards of Care and instead should recommend “comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often predispose to and accompany gender dysphoria,” the text insists.
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