Children who believe their gender is different from their biological sex should receive therapy for gender dysphoria (GD), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on May 1.
The report stated that “psychotherapy for adolescents with GD is a well-suited intervention, as it is intended to help patients develop self-understanding, engage with emotional vulnerability, and build practical strategies for managing distress.”
The report also said that procedures and drugs used in transgender treatments and surgeries “carry risk of significant harms,” including infertility, lower bone density, and heart disease.
Procedures carried out by some medical institutions include breast removal. Drugs include cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.
“The evidence for benefit of pediatric medical transition is very uncertain, while the evidence for harm is less uncertain. When medical interventions pose unnecessary, disproportionate risks of harm, healthcare providers should refuse to offer them even when they are preferred, requested, or demanded by patients,” the report reads. “Failure to do so increases the risk of iatrogenic harm and reduces medicine to consumerism, threatening the integrity of the profession and undermining trust in medical authority.”
He added, “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
The report noted that a number of U.S. medical organizations support children receiving cross-sex hormones and other “gender-affirming care,” and that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards, followed by a number of U.S. facilities, recommend treatments as early as age 8 and procedures before a child becomes an adult.
But some other countries, including the United Kingdom, have curtailed or banned such medicines and procedures over concerns about their long-term impact. Twenty-seven U.S. states have also enacted laws limiting the medicines that can be prescribed for youth who report having gender dysphoria, according to health policy news outlet KFF.
During the Biden administration, officials, including Dr. Rachel Levine, who identifies as transgender and served as the assistant secretary for health at HHS, regularly promoted youth access to cross-sex hormones and medical procedures.
HHS said contributors to the report included medical doctors, medical ethicists, and a methodologist. Officials said the contributors were chosen because they are committed to scientific principles and because they represent a range of political viewpoints.
“Chapters of this review were subject to peer review prior to this publication, and a post-publication peer review will begin in the coming days involving stakeholders with different perspectives,” HHS said. “Names of the contributors to the review are not initially being made public, in order to help maintain the integrity of this process.”
“Our research shows that trans and nonbinary young people who are able to live as their authentic selves through receiving healthcare are significantly less likely to attempt suicide,” it said.
Dr. Michael Artigues, the president of the American College of Pediatricians, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the report confirms that “transgender interventions on minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, cause irreversible harm.”
