Global Organization Recommends Earlier Hormone Treatments for Transgender Children
Dr. Susan Berry
16 Sep 2017
A global organization whose focus is endocrinology has released new guidelines that recommend an easing of restrictions on transgender hormone treatments for younger children who claim to be of the opposite biological sex.
The Washington, DC-based Endocrine Society’s new clinical guidelinessay children under 16 years of age may benefit from hormone treatments early to transform their bodies to the opposite biological sex.
While the organization does not recommend hormone treatment for gender-dysphoric children who have yet to reach puberty, the doctors say such treatment can commence as puberty begins, which, for some children, could be as early as nine years of age.
The Endocrine Society also says young gender-confused children can benefit from altering their hair and clothing to match what is typical for the opposite sex.
“Together, we have worked … to optimize care, both on the mental health side and medical care,” saysDr. Steve Rosenthal, according to nbcbayarea.com.
An endocrinologist who heads the Child and Adolescent Gender Center at the University of California at San Francisco Children’s Hospital, Rosenthal says that providing medical treatments at younger ages allows gender-confused children to change their sex with fewer surgeries and less cost later on in life.
“It makes it a lot easier for that person to blend in,” Rosenthal adds. “If you go through female puberty and you have breasts, if you go through male puberty and you have an Adam’s apple and a facial male structure, a deepened voice, all of these things are very difficult to change.”
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The new guidelines also recommend that older children, who say they want to receive sex-change hormones, are evaluated by a team of experts who can confirm the child has “sufficient mental capacity to give informed consent.”
Dr. Eric Vilain, a pediatrician and geneticist who directs the Medical Genetics division at the University of California in Los Angeles, however, disagrees, saying, “I think it’s putting a lot on the shoulders of these children. It’s putting them on a path that will have a lot of medical and surgical consequences.”
According to the news report, Vilain states allowing young children to adopt the clothing and hairstyles of the opposite sex pushes them to identify with that sex and influences the decision to have more invasive medical treatments and surgeries.
“If the children are pushed in this belief it will be much, much harder for them to get out of this belief because everyone will have agreed on it very, very early on,” Vilain said, pointing out the numerous studies that have shown at least 80 percent of individuals who believe they are transgender ultimately are comfortable with their biological sex.
“What worries me is that, indeed, there might be in the upcoming years a considerable number of these children that are placed on a path that we don’t fully know the outcome,” he states.
A growing number of pediatricians, mental health professionals, and gay rights activists are, in fact, warning American parents about the dangers of the pro-transgender “gender ideology,” which pressures parents to impose risky and dangerous treatments on their children.
“Transgender ideology is not just infecting our laws,” writes pediatrician and researcher Dr. Michelle Cretella, the mother of four and president of the American College of Pediatricians. “It is intruding into the lives of the most innocent among us – children – and with the apparent growing support of the professional medical community.”
Cretella says she has “witnessed an upending of the medical consensus on the nature of gender identity,” which intimidates professionals who question the claim that some children can and should try to change their sex.
She notes the Pediatric Endocrine Society – which co-sponsored the new guidelines – and the American Academy of Pediatrics have gone along with the trend of “endorsing the transition affirmation approach,” even though based on limited evidence.
Cretella’s organization assertsgender ideology is harmful to children and that transgendered children are psychologically confused and at risk for mental health disorders.
“According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty,” the college says. “Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.”
Rosenthal says the studies about the overwhelming percentage of gender-confused children who ultimately resolve their problem with their biological sex are outdated.
According to the Endocrine Society, the new guidelines are co-sponsored by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American Society of Andrology, European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology, European Society of Endocrinology, Pediatric Endocrine Society, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
Authored by a task force headed by Wylie Hembree, M.D., at Columbia University, the guidelines are released as Congress is again debating healthcare reform. Consequently, the Endocrine Society has also releaseda position statement about hormone and surgical interventions for gender-confused individuals, which urges insurance coverage for the procedures:
- Federal and private insurers should cover such interventions as prescribed by a physician as well as the appropriate medical screenings that are recommended for all body tissues that a person may have.
- Increased funding for national research programs is needed to close the gaps in knowledge regarding transgender medical care and should be made a priority.
“Transgender individuals who have been denied care show an increased likelihood of committing suicide and self-harm,” the group claims.
Kaeley Triller Haver, co-founder of the Hands Across the Aisle Women’s Coalition– a group of progressive and conservative women who have come together to oppose the transgender agenda – agrees with Cretella–that allowing gender-confused or dysphoric children to undergo hormone treatments is “child abuse”: