As the American left and its friends in the medical establishment push “gender-affirming care” on children, a new study reveals such “care” lacks evidence and a basis in medicine.
A new look at the “gender-affirming” model shows that the purported benefits are “no greater than a placebo effect,” a study out of U.K. nonprofit Sex Matters found.
Sex Matters says its members “advocate and produce resources to promote clarity about sex in public policy, law and culture” with the “singular mission” to “re-establish that sex matters in rules, laws, policies, language and culture.”
“The ‘gender-affirming’ model of care for teenagers is based on evidence that falls apart under examination,” the group says. “There is strong evidence that this medical pathway causes physical harm. It can lead to infertility and loss of future sexual function; among multiple side effects, bone health suffers.”
Sex Matters says those side effects may be acceptable if there were significant mental health benefits attached, but found that those benefits do not exist.
“Perhaps there are some teenagers for whom the cost-benefit analysis works out – but we have no evidence to tell us which ones, or under what circumstances,” the group writes. “We do know that the physical impacts are significant, and the mental-health improvements minimal.”
“Gender-affirming care” is a left-wing term used to advocate for the social and medical “transitions” for children, which often include castrating hormone treatments and puberty blockers, as well as genital mutilation surgeries.
Pro-castration and mutilation doctors will often argue that such “treatment” options are necessary as a remedy for a child’s mental health issues, even going as far as to threaten parents with the prospect of their own child’s suicide unless they start along the irreversible path of “gender transition.”
The Biden administration, the Democrat Party, and allies in the private sector fall in line as well, even arguing that chemical and social transition should start earlier and earlier in a child’s life.
As Sex Matters points out, literature and advocacy for such destructive medical practices are primarily justified using “recycled” studies.
“Findings are inflated and limitations overlooked,” the group writes. “A fresh analysis of the evidence base is urgently needed, in which the studies are reviewed and re-interpreted to remove unjustified claims of benefit.”
Further, while the left argues that the “social transition” — allowing children to use “preferred pronouns,” new names, and facilities of the opposite sex — is mostly benign but important, Sex Matters found a link between “social transition” and “gender-dysphoria persisting.”
The “social transition” is one of the more controversial issues in public schools, where some administrators and teachers believe they have the right to begin such a process with a child without telling their parents, an action Sex Matters says schools should “rethink.”
As Breitbart News reported, American medical officials are actively encouraging gender transitions for children. Indeed, the prescription of puberty blocking drugs doubled between 2017 and 2021, according to data from the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Earlier this year, 13 state attorneys general wrote a letter in which they were skeptical of the American medical establishment push for “gender transition,” especially in light of many European countries sounding the alarm on such medical practices.
“One might expect a bit more intellectual humility from U.S. medical organizations when they address the life-altering, irreversible procedures they are championing as the cure du jour for pediatric gender dysphoria,” they wrote before comparing the modern medical fanaticism about gender treatments to the eugenics movement and the use of lobotomies.
Such a “cure du jour” enables doctors to create lifelong patients who will require prescription drugs and medical procedures for years.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.