AAP Rips HHS Report Warning of ‘Risks’ and ‘Harms’ of Gender-Affirming Care for Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a statement Thursday condemning the report released that same day by the Trump Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its assertion of “serious concerns” regarding so-called “gender-affirming care” for children.

The AAP “is deeply alarmed by the report” on “medical care for transgender and gender-diverse individuals and the process that informed its development,” said AAP President Susan J. Kressly, M.D. “For such an analysis to carry credibility, it must consider the totality of available data and the full spectrum of clinical outcomes rather than relying on select perspectives and a narrow set of data.”

“This report misrepresents the current medical consensus and fails to reflect the realities of pediatric care,” Kressly said, adding:

As we have seen with immunizations, bypassing medical expertise and scientific evidence has real consequences for the health of America's children. AAP was not consulted in the development of this report, yet our policy and intentions behind our recommendations were cited throughout in inaccurate and misleading ways. The report prioritizes opinions over dispassionate reviews of evidence.

As Lumen-News reported Thursday, the HHS review revealed “serious concerns about medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, that attempt to transition children and adolescents away from their sex.”

The review also exposed “a growing body of evidence pointing to significant risks—including irreversible harms such as infertility—while finding very weak evidence of benefit.”

“That weakness has been a consistent finding of systematic reviews of evidence around the world,” the federal health agency asserted, bringing the United States into the company of other nations that have expressed substantial concerns about medical treatment for child gender issues.

A longtime supporter of gender-affirming care for children, AAP has partnered with other establishment medical organizations – the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association, and the American Psychiatric Association – in the claim that so-called “gender-affirming care” is “evidence-based.”

“We reiterate that all patients must have access to evidence-based, comprehensive medical care, and that physicians must be able to practice medicine that is informed by their education, training, and experience without threat of criminalization,” the groups said. “Politics should not get in the way of evidence-based care and a strong patient-physician relationship.”

“We support our members and will continue to advocate for access to the full spectrum of evidence-based health care and medical education,” argued the medical organizations.

Writing at Genspect Monday, however, Nancy McDermott argued AAP’s position is “misguided.”

“Their 2018 policy, Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents, recommends puberty blockers and hormones for minors with gender dysphoria, claiming these are ‘reversible’ and backed by a ‘medical consensus,’” she wrote. “No such consensus exists. Puberty blockers have been severely restricted or banned in the UK, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, with Italy and France likely to follow suit.”

McDermott observed the AAP’s position statements have still “influenced policies at numerous U.S. children’s hospitals and gender clinics, illustrating the consequences when professional organizations prioritize advocacy over evidence.”

Indeed, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told Fox News over the weekend, the scientific and medical establishment has acquiesced to “group think.”

“The scientific establishment has closed ranks around itself and prohibited dissent, and didn’t allow people to say, ‘Are you sure the evidence is good?’” he explained, emphasizing, however, that the situation in the Trump administration is “the exact opposite”:

One of the things I’m most proud of that I have done at the NIH so far is to bring back academic freedom, so that researchers at the NIH – if they have a scientific result – even if I don’t agree with it – they’re still going to be free to publish it.

Bhattacharya asserted the HHS “comprehensive review” of treatment guidelines for children with gender issues was “absolutely fantastic.”

He mentioned just two of the false claims spread by the transgender medical industry: first, that so-called gender-affirming care prevents suicide, and, second, that the results of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender surgeries are reversible.

As we reported last week, one group of pediatricians is referring to the HHS comprehensive review as “groundbreaking.”

“Today’s report confirms what we have warned since 2011— transgender interventions on minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, cause irreversible harm,” said American College of Pediatricians President Dr. Michael Artigues.

“These practices defy decades of science on child development,” he added. “Puberty is not a disease— its absence is. Medicine must do no harm. We call on leading medical organizations to promote policies that align with the findings of this report.”