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Letter Signed By 21 Clinicians And Researchers: No Real Evidence ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ Benefits Youth

Photo of K. Walker K. WalkerJuly 17, 2023
52 5 minutes read


NOTE: This article may include commentary reflecting the author’s position.

Biden’s Assistant Health Secretary isn’t going to like this very much…

Admiral Rachel (born: Richard) Levine has said repeatedly that so-called gender-affirming care is vitally important for gender-confused kids.

This “care” would include chemical castration drugs to suppress puberty, cross-sex hormones, removing healthy breast tissue in teen girls, and the occasional penile inversion of an older teen boy.

Here are just a few times that the transgender-identifying Biden official has said that:

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1607374539960336384?s=20

According to Levine, this support for the Orwellian-named “gender-affirming care” is at the highest levels of the Biden administration.

Indeed, Biden himself has said that opposing turning children into life-long medical patients and put them on the path for genital mutilation because of a neo-Gnostic idea that they were somehow born in the wrong body is “almost sinful.”

As many countries in the Western world take a step back on so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors, North America pushes it relentlessly, even though it would appear that the risks greatly outweigh the benefits — if there are any benefits at all.

This story is a bit complicated, so bear with me.

It begins with a June 29 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Roy Eappen and Ian Kingsbury titled, “The Endocrine Society’s Dangerous Transgender Politicization.” In it, Dr. Eappen, an endocrinologist, and Kingsbury, director of an organization called “Do No Harm”, blasted the Endocrine Society for pushing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for gender-confused kids.

In response, Stephen Hammes, president of the Endocrine Society, wrote in a letter to the WSJ on July 4, “More than 2,000 studies published since 1975 form a clear picture: Gender-affirming care improves the well-being of transgender and gender-diverse people and reduces the risk of suicide.”

There’s just one problem with that — it’s not true.

On Thursday, a group of 21 clinicians and researchers from 9 countries pushed back on Dr. Hammes’s claim. They all signed a letter saying that the evidence that pumping kids full of chemicals and sending them on the path for surgery is sketchy — including a study that was published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, Hammes’s own organization.

Instead, these medical experts suggest psychotherapy as a first response to a child saying that they “feel” like they might be a different gender.

Every systematic review of evidence to date, including one published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, has found the evidence for mental-health benefits of hormonal interventions for minors to be of low or very low certainty. By contrast, the risks are significant and include sterility, lifelong dependence on medication and the anguish of regret. For this reason, 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.
Dr. Hammes’s claim that gender transition reduces suicides is contradicted by every systematic review, including the review published by the Endocrine Society, which states, “We could not draw any conclusions about death by suicide.” There is no reliable evidence to suggest that hormonal transition is an effective suicide-prevention measure.
Source: Wall Street Journal

Here is the list of the individuals that signed the letter, their position, and where they’re from.

FINLAND

  • Prof. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, M.D., Ph.D., Tampere University
  • Laura Takala, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Psychiatrist, Alkupsykiatria Clinic

UNITED KINGDOM

  • Prof. Richard Byng, M.B.B.Ch., Ph.D., University of Plymouth
  • Anna Hutchinson, D.Clin.Psych., Clinical psychologist, The Integrated Psychology Clinic
  • Anastassis Spiliadis, Ph.D.(c), Director, ICF Consultations

SWEDEN

  • Angela Sämfjord, M.D., Senior consultant, Sahlgrenska University Hospital
  • Sven Román, M.D., Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

NORWAY

  • Anne Wæhre, M.D., Ph.D., Senior consultant, Oslo University Hospital

BELGIUM

  • Em. Prof. Patrik Vankrunkelsven, M.D. Ph.D., Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Honorary senator
  • Sophie Dechêne, M.R.C.Psych., Child and adolescent psychiatrist
  • Beryl Koener, M.D., Ph.D., Child and adolescent psychiatrist

FRANCE

  • Prof. Celine Masson, Ph.D., Picardy Jules Verne University Psychologist, Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, Co-director, Observatory La Petite Sirène
  • Caroline Eliacheff, M.D., Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Co-director, Observatory La Petite Sirène
  • Em. Prof. Maurice Berger, M.D. Ph.D., Child psychiatrist

SWITZERLAND

  • Daniel Halpérin, M.D., Pediatrician

SOUTH AFRICA

  • Prof. Reitze Rodseth, Ph.D., University of Kwazulu-Natal
  • Janet Giddy, M.B.Ch.B., M.P.H., Family physician and public-health expert
  • Allan Donkin, M.B.Ch.B., Family physician

UNITED STATES

  • Clin. Prof. Stephen B. Levine, M.D., Case Western Reserve University
  • Clin. Prof. William Malone, M.D., Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine Director, Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine,
  • Prof. Patrick K. Hunter, M.D., Florida State University, Pediatrician and bioethicist

Remember the 9-year-old boy who was dressed as a girl with his hair dyed pink featured on the cover of National Geographic a few years ago as the face of the “Gender Revolution”?

Well, that photo was taken all the way back in December 2016, and, wouldn’t you know it, Avery Jackson has grown up somewhat and is now “course correcting” by identifying as nonbinary. Avery uses they/them pronouns and no longer identifies as transgender.

That “course correction” tends to happen once a child hits puberty, which is what Avery is now in the midst of.

Prior to the adoption of the “affirmative” model of care, the vast majority of gender-confused kids would become comfortable in their own bodies and recognize that the sex observed at birth is who they are. Some might come to realize that they’re gay. That’s not the case anymore for many reasons — one is that it is mainly teen girls now self-diagnosing with gender dysphoria, which is a very different cohort than the preschool boys that were the primary sufferers, but also because gender ideology has taken hold of so many institutions from the media and education to the Endocrine Society. Now, it seems, self-identification can shift and change on a whim, but only if it’s a gender non-conforming identity such as trans or the nonsensical category of “nonbinary.”

But remember, it’s the gender-confused kids, Big Pharma, the Medical Industrial Complex, creepy Leftist politicians, and radical gender activists that are right, not the parents or those crazy scientists that demand evidence.

While Admiral Levine and the rest of the Biden Groomer Administration might not be so happy with the letter, one brave dad who walks around with a billboard having conversations about the issue and winning people over with reason and evidence is rather thrilled.

Chris Elston (Billboard Chris) is right.

The idea that kids need “gender-affirming care” instead of counseling when it’s clear that social contagion is playing a role in this is just ludicrous.

Unfortunately, medical science has been captured by radicals just like climate science has.

We should all be out there doing our part and having conversations like Chris Elston does.

The world needs more bold truth-tellers. The health and well-being of thousands of children depend on it.

John The Baptist: A Rude Awakening Precedes A Great Awakening.

This timely little tome chronicles the politically incorrect ministry of one of God’s most effective wildmen, John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Christ’s ministry.

The abrasive message of repentance John preached 2000 years ago is still confrontational and offensive today — but it is also life-changing.

In our putrid, worldly culture that has turned away from God, this book is a must-read for every Christian.

Available in paperback for those of you who like the feel of the pages in your hot, little hands, on Kindle to keep it right at your fingertips, and as an epic Audiobook.

Sources:

Eappen, Roy, and Kingsbury, Ian. “The Endocrine Society’s Dangerous Transgender Politicization.” Wall Street Journal (Archived). June 28, 2023. https://archive.is/dD90p#selection-171.5-171.65

Hammes, Stephen R. “Endocrine Society Responds on Gender-Affirming Care.” Wall Street Journal Letter To The Editor (Archived). July 4, 2023. https://archive.is/KhmMa#selection-171.5-171.56

Wall Street Journal Opinion — Open Letter. “Youth Gender Transition Is Pushed Without Evidence.” Wall Street Journal July 13, 2023. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trans-gender-affirming-care-transition-hormone-surgery-evidence-c1961e27 (Archived copy here.)

Greenfield, Beth. “Years after her trans child, 9, made history as the pink-haired National Geographic cover model, mom Debi Jackson looks back: ‘We were at a great place in our country’.” Yahoo Life. April 6, 2023. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/national-geographic-transgender-child-cover-model-mom-161141879.html

Photo of K. Walker K. WalkerJuly 17, 2023
52 5 minutes read
Photo of K. Walker

K. Walker

ClashDaily's Associate Editor since August 2016. Self-described political junkie, anti-Third Wave Feminist, and a nightmare to the 'intersectional' crowd. Mrs. Walker has taken a stand against 'white privilege' education in public schools. She's also an amateur Playwright, former Drama teacher, and staunch defender of the Oxford comma. Follow her humble musings on Twitter: @TheMrsKnowItAll and on Gettr @KarenWalker