The promotion of extreme interventions such as puberty blockers, sex-trait modification via cross-sex hormones, and irreversible surgeries performed as a remedy for mental distress may represent the biggest medical scandal of our time. Despite no high-quality studies or long-term evidence, these radical interventions have been falsely presented not only as safe, but as lifesaving. Nothing could be farther from the truth.  

 

Instead of improving the lives of young people and adults experiencing gender-related distress, these unstudied interventions have created lifelong medical patients at high risk for permanent sexual dysfunction, and in some cases have resulted in sterilization. Long-term studies on adults post surgery show an increased risk of suicide post transition, despite restrictive patient screening, while studies on children show that, if left alone, most gender distress resolves after adolescence without medical intervention. In fact, medical interventions appear to cause feelings of distress to persist. Those on puberty blockers are all but guaranteed to continue to cross-sex hormones — a statistical anomaly that can’t be chalked up to quality assessment prior to treatment when reports show that there’s often no assessment at all before starting blockers. A recent JAMA report shows that in the U.S., from 2016 to 2019, nearly 50,000 “gender-affirming care” surgeries had taken place. Of that group, 7% were aged 18 or under, and 52% were 19 to 30. The most common procedures were breast augmentation and double mastectomies at 56%, followed by genital surgeries at 35%.

We now know that sex-trait modification as a treatment for gender-related distress isn’t safe, effective, or evidence-based. Europe already knows that the potential risks of the “gender-affirming” model outweigh the possible benefits, but the U.S., and the Democrats continue to promote these extreme medical interventions as a reasonable pathway for distressed youth. Countless young people and vulnerable adults have paid the price for this reckless, unproven approach, and we as liberals/Democrats urgently need to change course.