LOS ANGELES.–Releasing a 409-page Health and Human Services [HHS] report on treatment for transgender youth, the Trump White House questions recommendations of the World Professional Assn. for Transgender Health.  HHS news reports sets the “best practices” for transgender youth, recommending no medical-based treatment until after age 19.  Urging behavior therapy before age 19, the HHS bucks the current medical trend to give gender-affirming care to children and teenagers claiming to have difference gender identities to their biological sex.  Representing about 0.95% of the U.S. population, transgender medical care remains controversial for youth, under the age of 18, where 0.6% of youth 13 and older identify as transgender and seek gender-affirming care in states like California where it gives children and teens the right to seek treatment without parental consent.

            Signing the executive order on new HHS “best practices” for transgender care, President Trump said the federal government will no longer support transgender medical care for anyone under the age of 19.  “Our duty is the protect our nation’s children—not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” said National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhatacharya.  “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agenda.”  Today’s HHS report questions the advisability of gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, including prescribing puberty blockers outside research settings.  HHS urges the use of behavior therapy to deal with transgender issues before the age of 19, where issues related to gender identity change can be discussed without subjecting youth to so-called “conversion therapy,” a controversial therapeutic technique.

            Conversion type therapies have been deemed potentially harmful by the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, sometimes leading to serious depressions and suicides.  HHS’s 409-page report attempts to provide guidelines for gender-affirming medical care for children, preteens and teens, representing a small fraction of the transgender population.  HHS says its review “is intended for policymakers, clinicians, therapists, medical organizations, and importantly, patients and their families,” saying the gender-affirming medical care, and currently practices, fail their young patients.  “It is very chilling to see the federal government injecting politics and ideology into medical science,” said Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights.  How ironic that a gender advocacy group accuses the HHS of playing politics, hiding behind “science.”

            Transgender advocate adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Scott Leibowitz, author of World Professional Associates for Transgender Health, said that the HHS report “legitimizes the harmful ideal that providers should approach young people with the notion that alignment between sex and gender is preferred, instead of approaching the treatment frame in a neutral manner,” Leibowitz said.  Transgender advocates like Leibowitz encourages children and teenagers to seek gender-affirming medical care.  HHS report questions the advisability to starting medical intervention against parental advice but urged by medical authorizes specialized in treating transgender issues. American Assn. of Pediatrics president Dr. Susan Kressly said the HHS report misrepresents her constituents.  Kressly believes in the gender-affirming medical care is backed by the American Medical Assn.

            Kressly believes the HHS report distorts the state of the art transgender medical treatments already approved th the American Assn. of Pediatrics.  “This report misrepresents the current medical consensus and fails to reflect the realities of pediatric care,” Kressly said.  Kressly complained that the HHS report distorted her association and recommendations for gender-affirming medical care.  Saying the report is “one-sided,” and “magnifies the risk of treatments while minimizing benefits of the treatments,” said Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist.  What Drescher doesn’t admit is that medical intervention for transgender youth can be irreversible, especially if youth eventually change their minds.  About 1,200 patients underwent gender affirming surgery last year.  Transgender medical experts think they’re doing the right thing converting new gender identities with medical techniques.

            Today’s HHS report questions the advisability of delivering, without parental consent, gender-affirming medical care before the age of 19.  Transgender medical specialists in gender affirming-care do not consider the long-term risks of puberty blockers or surgeries to complete gender transformations when mercurial youth can change their minds when some medical treatments are irreversible.  Transgender rights groups see the HHS report as bigoted against the transgender community, all because it wants, until age 19, to restrict certain potentially irreversible medical treatments.  When the HHS Report urges behavior therapy, it doesn’t mean that they think it can solve all problems of transgender youth.  HHS report asks the transgender medical profession, advocacy groups and supporters to accept gender-affirming care only after the age of 19.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.