Procedures and medicines ‘carry risk of significant harms,’ including infertility, the government’s new report states.
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.
“Psychotherapy is a noninvasive alternative to endocrine and surgical interventions for the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria. Systematic reviews of evidence have found no evidence of adverse effects of psychotherapy in this context,” a 409-page report from HHS states.
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.”
HHS said the report was aimed at providing accurate and current information on the treatment of gender dysphoria in children. It was commissioned after President Donald Trump signed an order in January that stated in part that U.S. policy was not to “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ’transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement, “Our duty is to protect our nation’s children—not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions.”
He added, “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
