HHS Finalizes Report Finding Sex-Rejecting Procedures Harm Minors

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its final, peer-reviewed report on the effects of sex-rejecting procedures on minors last week.

Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices, which HHS first published in May, found “transgender” medical interventions — including puberty blockers, [wrong]-sex hormones and surgical operations — pose “significant, long term and too often ignored” harms to children.

The report’s groundbreaking conclusion remains unchanged in the final version published November 19. The latest copy includes peer reviewers’ evaluations of the report and the department’s responses to their critiques. It also reveals the names of review’s nine prestigious authors.

HHS invited three of the report’s biggest critics — the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association and the Endocrine Society — to participate in the peer review process.

All three organizations recommend sex-rejecting procedures for minors struggling with wrong-sex identification. Upon the release of Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria in May, the American Academy of Pediatrics claimed it “misrepresented the current medical consensus and failed to reflect the realities of pediatric care.”

But only the American Psychiatric Association agreed to review the report. HHS thoroughly refuted its critiques, such that The Washington Post editorial board wrote:

[The HHS report’s] core finding — that the evidence for [transgender medical] interventions is highly uncertain — echoes the results of systematic reviews in other countries. None of the peer reviews of the HHS report ultimately rebut that conclusion.

Critics attacked HHS for bias and lack of transparency in May, when it kept the authors of Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria anonymous.

“That’s one more reason why I can tell you this is an ideological, political document and not a scientific one,” Casey Pick, director of law and policy at the Trevor Project, a radical LGBT activist group, told Science in May. “Scientists stand by their work.”

In the final report, HHS notes withholding authors’ names is an “established practice in scientific review” meant to reduce bias in the peer reviews.

Nine multi-disciplinary experts authored Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria, HHS reveals, including two bioethicists, two psychiatrists, a philosopher, an evidence-based medicine specialist, an endocrinologist and two researchers — one who specializes in healthcare and another who covers “pediatric gender issues” for a think tank.

“These are not ideological cranks; they are thoughtful researchers,” the Post’s editorial board admits, concluding:

It is fair to say [the authors’] work has withstood scrutiny, with minor updates.

Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria withstands even the most critical peer reviews. That means Americans must acknowledge national medical authorities perform sex-rejecting procedures on children struggling with wrong-sex identification, despite evidence showing such interventions cause irrevocable harm.

“The American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics peddled the lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. castigated in a press release announcing the final report.

He continued:

They betrayed their oath to first do no harm, and their so-called “gender-affirming care” has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. That is not medicine — it’s malpractice.

The Daily Citizen heartily agrees.

Additional Articles and Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Resources for families struggling with wrong-sex identification

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The Shifting Ground of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

UK Bans Puberty Blockers for ‘Transgender’ Minors

U.K.’s Review of Child Gender Policy Reveals Profound Failures That U.S. Still Defends

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

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