Two Exposés Reveal Truth About 'Gender Affirming Care' for Minors

More evidence in a mounting case about the dangers of 'experts' fast-tracking kids to transition

How many more studies and reports that outline the dangers of providing ‘gender affirming care’ to gender confused minors, do proponents of this type of ‘care’ need to see in order to come to their senses? Do they not know that many of these gender confused kids often have a host of other mental health conditions and traumas that should be addressed before any ‘transitioning’ begins. Are they not aware that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone therapy, and irreversible sex change surgeries can lead to sterility, life long medical problems and decrease their chances of having a happy, fulfilling sex life? Those, however, are never topics of concern or discussion for them because these people are so ideologically driven they are beyond having factual and rational discussions on these topics, period. Instead they resort to accusing those who even begin to question their position of being trans-phobic, haters and putting ‘trans kids’ at risk of committing suicide.

Yet, the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) has just recently released their position statement on the subject, which totally opposes the ‘gender affirming care”model for gender confused minors. It is based on a review of some 60 scientific studies on the matter. Instead they recommend psychotherapy to treat underlying causes—which range from other mental health conditions to childhood trauma — for these young people. Just this year scientific researchers in Finland released the results of their extensive study that clearly demonstrates that ‘gender dysphoria’ is not a significant cause of suicide in adolescents–thus refuting the ideological trope: so often used by gender-bending professionals; ‘would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son.’ Many European countries, who for decades, pioneered the treatment of youths believed to have gender dysphoria, have moved from the complete ‘affirmation’ approach to a ‘watch and wait’ approach, while focusing on treating the other mental health comorbidities many of these youths face, with psychotherapy.

Still, gender ideologues stubbornly stick to their belief that all gender confused youths should receive ‘gender affirming care’, complete with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical procedures such as removing the breasts of young girls and the penises of young boys. Here in Canada three provincial premiers were roundly attacked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for introducing common sense guidelines when it comes to dealing with gender confused children and teens.

Trudeau is a big fan of all things LGBTQ+, and in his attacks, he accused all three premiers of putting ‘vulnerable’ people at risk, with their new guidelines. He never goes beyond that, just vague accusations of these ‘right wing’ actors being ‘cruel and isolating vulnerable people’. He is so blinded by his ideology that he can’t seem to understand that putting confused ‘vulnerable’ youths, the very people he is talking about, on the fast track to ‘transitioning’ is perhaps not only cruel, but reckless and dangerous.

There are now two new exposés that again reveal this reckless nature of fast-tracking children and adolescents to changing their genders and changing their bodies forever. First there are the leaked files of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). WPATH promotes itself as the ‘gold’ standard for treating gender dysphoria; this ‘gold’ standard adheres to the ‘affirmation’ model for gender-confused minors, which again according to WPATH, is that popular ‘notion’ that it will prevent suicides in these youths. This standard dictates the policies set by many hospitals, health authorities and medical clinics, and psychologists in Canada and the United States when it comes to treating gender confused minors.

While WPATH describes its ‘standards’ as evidence-based and best practice, these leaked files cast serious doubt on that claim. They include videos of clinicians discussing patients receiving irreversible treatments where they are very unlikely to be able to receive informed consent, including some who are very young, and others who have serious mental-health disorders. Some conversations suggest that the clinicians themselves don’t know the long-term effects of these treatments. In other conversations, it seems they actually do know that cross-sex hormones or surgeries are likely to cause serious harm, but advocate for those treatments despite this knowledge. 

The WPATH files were leaked to investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger through Environmental Progress his NGO, and were analyzed by one of the journalists on his staff, Mia Hughes, who from those files prepared a 250-page report, which has since been widely published. In Hughe’s summary of the report she states that the “WPATH-affiliated health-care providers advocate for the destruction of healthy reproductive systems, the amputation of healthy breasts and the surgical removal of healthy genitals as the first and only line of treatment for minors and mentally ill people with gender dysphoria, eschewing any attempt to reconcile the patient with his or her birth sex. This, in spite of repeated admissions by WPATH health care professionals ‘that their practices are based on improvisation, that children cannot comprehend them and that the consent process is not ethical.”

Leaked materials include videos of panel discussions of WPATH doctors, therapists, social workers and activists provide a brief, but revealing look into their private conversations on the subject of caring for growing numbers of children identifying as ‘transgender’.This includes discussing concerns that minors may not fully grasp the extent to which the medical interventions they are agreeing to are impacting them, particularly the ones that are potentially permanent – like sterility. Whether the minimum age for genital surgery — 18 — should be considered an “arbitrary” number and whether putting minors as young as nine on children puberty blockers is “robbing” children of a key period of sexual development.

So first a report involving WPATH leaks is published that calls into question its whole approach to treating gender confused minors, and almost by providence, a documentary film called, Trans Express, produced by Radio-Canada, the Quebec arm of Canada’s national broadcaster, is aired on February 29, this year. The film, an investigative documentary, illustrates just how easily youths can get prescriptions for cross-sex hormones, and have access to surgeries, such as mastectomies, with virtually no parental consultation or permission in Quebec. It follows the story of one young female who began to transition to male by taking testosterone that was prescribed to her at a gender clinic after just two consultations. As she ‘transitioned’ to male, while on the hormone therapy she also decided to get a double mastectomy (fully covered by Quebec’s health insurance).

The mastectomy was performed with next to no discussions or counselling about the consequences of having such surgery. She is now in the process of detransitioning, is off the testosterone, and is saving money to pay for reconstructive surgery for her chest, which interestingly enough is not covered by the province's health insurance plans. They may be able to construct new ‘breasts’ for her, but she will forever be deprived of the ability to breast feed a child if she ever able to have one, as being on testosterone may have impacted her reproductive abilities.

The documentary then follows that case of another gender confused minor being fast-tracked to transition. It includes an interview with the parents of the girl who say they were misled by psychologists and doctors into agreeing to have their teenage daughter transition to male – using the usual veiled threat – ‘do you want a dead daughter or a living son.’ They were advised this, despite the fact their daughter suffered from a host of mental disorders including anxiety, depression, an eating disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, a mental condition, they were told by one psychologist at a gender clinic, did not exist. After a few years of transitioning to male the girl underwent a double mastectomy while on cross-hormone therapy. She, like the other young girl, is now in the process of transitioning back to female, where she says she really has to learn how to be a woman now, because she never had a chance of growing into one.    

So again, the question I have to ask is when will the ideologues who cling to, and spread this ideology around ‘gender affirming care’ for minors going to start taking a sober and serious look at this mounting evidence that calls in serious question the wisdom of transitioning children. There is epidemiological evidence, and there are serious ethical questions around ‘informed consent’ when it comes to dealing with minors whose gender confusion may arise from a host of other mental comorbidities.

These leaks from WPATH make it clear that even some of their own members are questioning the ethics around informed consent and question the ability of minors to understand the gravity of the treatments they may undergo. Yet, the organization seems to stubbornly adhere to the ‘affirmation’ model for gender-confused children, again – to prevent suicide.

The WPATH leaks, together with the revelations from Radio-Canada’s Trans Express unveil an unfolding medical scandal of catastrophic proportions. It is clear from both of these exposés that real lives are being harmed, and that WPATH itself knows that children and mentally ill people can’t give consent, because they aren’t capable of doing so. Anyone who challenges these conclusions need to ask any doctor in this field about the pledge they take with the Hippocratic Oath: First do no harm.