A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends therapy for minors with gender dysphoria rather than immediately turning to body mutilating surgery and hormone treatment.
Pediatric gender medicine, according to the report,is exceptional in several ways:
- The diagnosis of gender dysphoria is based entirely on subjective self-reports and behavioral observations, without any objective physical, imaging, or laboratory markers.
- The diagnosis centers on attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that are known to fluctuate during adolescence.T
- The natural history of pediatric gender dysphoria is poorly understood, though existing research suggests it will remit without intervention in most cases.
- The “gender-affirming” model of care includes irreversible endocrine and surgical interventions on minors with no physical pathology.
- The interventions carry risk of significant harms yet systematic reviews of the evidence have revealed deep uncertainty about the purported benefits of these interventions.
The 409-page report from HHS states, “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.”
The report emphasizes that the permanent procedures and body chemistry-altering drugs used in transgender treatments and surgeries “carry risk of significant harms,” that can lead to infertility, lower bone density, and heart disease.