HHS report: Pediatric ‘sex-rejecting’ procedures pose serious risks for children
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Caroline Molloy
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Caroline MolloyThe Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an updated, peer-reviewed report concluding that medical interventions intended to alter a child’s sex pose serious, long-term dangers and rest on weak scientific evidence.
The report, published by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, says the physical and psychological harms associated with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and other surgical interventions “are significant, long term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused major medical groups of misleading families about the safety of these interventions.
“The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics peddled the lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children,” he said in a statement. “They betrayed their oath to first do no harm, and their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. That is not medicine — it’s malpractice.”
The November update expands on a May HHS review of treatment standards for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The May report drew criticism from medical groups that argued the agency failed to disclose authorship and misrepresented claims of a medical consensus.
The new version identifies the nine contributing physicians and researchers, including experts affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, and the Manhattan Institute.
According to the report’s executive summary, studies used to justify “sex-rejecting” interventions are frequently “very low” in quality and often too short-term to measure outcomes. Documented risks include infertility, impaired bone density, metabolic disease, adverse cognitive impacts, sexual dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, psychiatric disorders, and surgical complications.
Independent reviews also show “deep uncertainty about the purported benefits” of these interventions, the report says.
Several countries have already moved to restrict medical interventions for minors, including the United Kingdom, which has “banned the routine use of puberty blockers as an intervention for pediatric gender dysphoria,” according to the summary.
“There is currently no international consensus about best practices for the care of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria,” the summary states.
