Finland’s leading expert on pediatric gender medicine dismantled the push to “transition” children with gender dysphoria, a practice heavily promoted by the United States medical establishment.
Advocates of putting children on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and letting them undergo genital mutilation surgeries refer to these practices as “gender-affirming care.”
But Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, professor of adolescent psychiatry at Tampere University in Finland, is sounding the alarm on the practices.
According to Kaltiala, even “social transitions” — such as allowing children to identify as a different gender, use different pronouns, and use restrooms and facilities not in line with their actual sex — perpetuate child gender confusion and introduce strong social and psychological interference in a child’s development.
During adolescence, the construction of identity is not complete and the end result remains unknown. Four out of five children who deal with gender confusion at a young age will grow out of it and return to identifying with their actual gender, according to Kaltiala, who says intervention on the issue can be harmful.
Allowing children to identify as another gender is tantamount to “negating the body,” and Kaltiala says that a child who is struggling with gender identity should be allowed to go through the process without intervention, as puberty will usually result in the child accepting their body.
Whether a child is pushed one way or another, Kaltiala says, “the child gets a message that there is something wrong with him or her.”
“Young people experiment with different identities,” the doctor continued. “It is normal in adolescence.”
When asked why gender identity experiments on children have become the desired course for doctors, as they are in the United States, Kaltiala said that the push did not come from child psychiatry, but rather from politicians, organizations, and doctors.
She also said that children who have identity issues will often be convinced by social media that their issues can be resolved if others saw them as their “true gender.” Kaltiala says there is no basis for drawing such a connection, because “The balance of the mind does not arise from making others do and see what they want.”
One thing child “transition” advocates, including doctors, often repeat is that not pursuing the “gender-affirming care” model is much more likely to result in suicide. In fact, doctors often bully parents into the medically dubious treatments by asking them, “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?”
Kaltiala calls this line “purposeful disinformation, the dissemination of which is irresponsible.”
“Mentally healthy young people who experience their gender differently from their biological body are not automatically self-destructive,” she said. In fact, a Swedish study showed a clear increase in suicide among adults receiving sex-change treatments.
Furthermore, a Finnish study showed that the mental health of people who received hormone treatments as a child actually deteriorated into adulthood.
Kaltiala argues that treatments based on gender identity should not begin until adulthood.
As Breitbart News reported, several European countries have taken steps against the “affirmation” model, with the United Kingdom announcing the closure of its only “gender-affirming” clinic for children for being “not safe.” England will also move from the “affirmation” model to one based in psychotherapy.
The U.K., Sweden, and Finland have “explicitly abandoned” the “affirmation” model because of over-prescription and evidence pointing to the persistence of gender dysphoria into adulthood when that model is followed.
Further, France’s National Academy of Medicine cautions against such medical interventions for minors and points to “epidemic-like” increases of gender dysphoria cases among children.
Despite that, when compared to any European country, the United States is the “most permissive country” for child sex change operations and gender “transition” drug treatments.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.