International doctors are sounding the alarm that America is gambling with children's futures by pushing transgender medical procedures while downplaying their consequences.
America has become the outlier on the world stage as medical groups push trans treatment for children, even as countries in Western Europe advise caution or distance themselves from such practices.
Doctors from France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland, South Africa, and the United States signed a joint letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal Friday warning that American medical leaders, such as Endocrine Society president Stephen Hammes, are dangerously cavalier on this issue.
The doctors were responding to a letter in the WSJ from Hammes and disputed his claim that 2,000 studies confirm "gender-affirming care improves the well-being of transgender and gender-diverse people and reduces the risk of suicide."
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Far from there being a consensus in favor of widespread gender-altering procedures for minors, the doctors declared that "every systematic review of evidence to date" has "found the evidence for mental-health benefits of hormonal interventions for minors to be of low or very low certainty."
They also shredded the idea that such procedures are as harmless or easily reversible as claimed, noting the risks of transgender medical treatments include "sterility, lifelong dependence on medication and the anguish of regret."
The doctors also emphasized that America an anomaly on this issue, as "more and more European countries and international professional organizations now recommend psychotherapy rather than hormones and surgeries as the first line of treatment for gender-dysphoric youth."
The letter went on quote the past work of the Endocrine Society itself, observing that it contradicted Hammes’ current assertions in concluding, "We could not draw any conclusions about death by suicide." The doctors warned, "There is no reliable evidence to suggest that hormonal transition is an effective suicide-prevention measure."
The signatories suggested that in order to end confusion over the best form of care for those with gender dysphoria, medical societies must "align their recommendations with the best available evidence—rather than exaggerating the benefits and minimizing the risks."
Florida-based endocrinologist Jesus L. Penabad, M.D., penned an additional letter responding to Hammes, where he noted that America in particular has "politicized" transgender issues to the point where "there are those who will justify any hormonal-replacement intervention for any young person who may have been identified as possibly having gender dysphoria."
While Dr. Penabad did not condemn gender operations per se, noting that "both sides" politicize transgender issues, he warned, "The point isn’t to open the floodgates and offer an often-irreversible treatment to all people who may have issues with their sexuality, but to determine who would truly benefit from it."
