Youth Gender Medicine Is Indeed Up for Debate

"As the shaky evidence base for youth gender medicine has become better known, activists have retreated to an argument from authority. Never mind the Cass Report, whose findings resulted in the closure of Britain's leading youth gender clinic. Never mind the study by a leading American practitioner showing that the treatments she championed did not improve minors' mental health. Never mind reports that some adolescents were being put on a medical pathway after only a single clinic visit. For advocates, the important thing to remember was that "gender-affirming care" for minors-puberty blockers and hormones, plus surgery in rare cases-was endorsed by all of the major American medical associations."

""Doctors Agree," proclaimed the American Civil Liberties Union: "Gender-Affirming Care Is Life-Saving Care." GLAAD declared that "every major medical association and leading world health authority supports health care for transgender people and youth." Fired up by the Republican "war on trans kids," and naturally deferential to institutional authority, Democrats have tended to echo this line. At a 2023 congressional-subcommittee hearing on pediatric gender medicine, the ranking Democrat, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, declared that "gender-affirming care is safe and effective" and "supported by every major medical association"-groups that collectively count more than 1.3 million doctors as members. "It's not up for debate," she said."

Shaky evidence underpins youth gender medicine, including findings that led to the closure of Britain's leading youth gender clinic and a study showing no mental-health improvement from treatments. Reports indicate some adolescents were placed on medical pathways after a single clinic visit. Advocates have leaned on endorsements from major American medical associations to defend puberty blockers, hormones, and rare surgeries for minors. Civil-rights groups and some Democratic politicians have cited association support as decisive. Recent professional guidance has begun to limit practice, exemplified by recommendations to delay gender-related surgeries until older ages.

Read at The Atlantic