They aren’t prescribing hormone blockers and surgery for children that young, they say
Gender clinics affiliated with three North Carolina medical schools are seeing patients as young as 2 for gender dysphoria, according to documents reviewed by The Epoch Times.
The medical schools at Duke University, the University of North Carolina (UNC), and East Carolina University (ECU) referenced providing “treatment” for toddlers and grade-school-age children with gender dysphoria on organization websites, in documents, and in news articles.
After information about the programs sparked backlash on social media, all three universities stated that they don’t prescribe cross-sex hormones or provide gender-modification surgery on toddlers.
The medical organizations didn’t deny that their doctors see preschoolers for gender dysphoria.
Transgender ‘Treatment’ for Toddlers
Sloan Rachmuth, president of Education First Alliance (EFA), a watchdog group in North Carolina, first exposed the universities’ policies in an article on EFA’s website.
Rachmuth is a proponent of North Carolina legislative proposals SB 639 and HB 808. If enacted, the measures would ban transgender procedures, puberty blockers, and other hormones for youths under the age of 18 in the state.
She said she hopes her article and the attention it received will help push the bills forward.
“That toddlers who couldn’t have any semblance of what it means to be ‘gendered’ are receiving a clinical diagnosis and subsequent treatment at North Carolina’s teaching hospitals is reason enough to pass a complete ban on all psychological, medical, and surgical treatments for gender reassignment on minors,” she wrote to The Epoch Times.
When ‘Gender Assigned at Birth’ Doesn’t ‘Align’
According to the Duke Child and Adolescent Gender Care Clinic website, “transgender youth” can receive a broad array of treatment and education at the facility.
“We provide treatment, support, education, and counseling to transgender youth who are exploring their gender identity and gender expression, as well as their families,” the Duke University website reads. “We also treat people with gender dysphoria, which occurs when sex and gender assigned at birth do not align with a person’s gender identity.”
The founder of the Duke Clinic, Dr. Deanna Adkins, was cited in a North Carolina newspaper discussing a toddler patient, according to EFA.
