Concern after the HHS report advocates trans the therapy for the attention that the genre affirms

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched what it called “Complete review“Transgender care for children and adolescents on Thursday, asking for a broader use of psychotherapy for young people with gender dysphoria instead of the care that gender states.

The details of the document of more than 400 pages allege damage to medical interventions for young people, including the use of puberty blockers and alleged risks, such as infertility.

The “evidence review and the report of best practices” is an answer to a January Executive order Issued by President Donald Trump, saying that the federal government would not “finance, sponsor, promote, assist or support” transition care for children under 19.

“Our duty is to protect the children of our nation, not to expose them to not proven and irreversible medical interventions,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Health Institutes, in a statement Thursday. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”

The attention affirmed by gender is supported by multiple important medical organizations. You can vary from allowing a child to choose their pronouns to typically prescription treatments for older adolescents. Studies show that treatments are Generally safe And that attention has a positive impact on mental health, which only psychotherapy cannot provide, experts said.

“Require someone [go] Through a prescribed course of therapy, governments can be misused to try to essentially block access to attention, “Dr. Dan Karasic, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of California in San Francisco, said ABC News.” There is simply no evidence that psychotherapy solves gender dysphorus. “

Puberty blockers security, hormonal therapies

One of the most common treatments in the attention affirmed by gender is the use of puberty blockers, which are used to delay the beginning of puberty among transgender and gender young people.

The report said that their review of the studies found low evidence that puberty blockers are safe or that improved mental health among children with gender dysphoria and “high certainty evidence” often cause infertility.

The informed also stated: “Evidence of low certainty suggests that puberty blockers can compromise bone health.”

However, Studies have demonstrated that adults who used puberty blockers in the past experienced menstrual cycles, childbirth and involuntary abortions at rates similar to those of the general population.

Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, a clinical professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University in California, said that puberty blockers have been used as a treatment for more than 30 years, mainly for a condition called CPP, or central early puberty, which is when puberty begins too early.

“These medications are immensely well studied,” he told ABC News. “The long -term effects of medications to pause puberty, when used in children, for temporary periods of time, function as a completely reversible pause button.”

She said that side effects related to sexual function or bone density are usually seen among adults, which can take medications for prostate cancer to reduce testosterone or endometriosis.

The HHS report also discussed hormones among sex, more commonly known as hormonal therapies, claiming that there is “high certainty evidence” that hormonal therapies have “physiological effects” and that many studies “were not specifically designed to capture the total range of long -term results.”

Although hormones can transport side effects, such as any medication, they can greatly improve mental health Of those with gender dysphoria, the studies show.

Ladinsky said hormonal therapies are often used with major teenagers who have had a gender dysphoria for a long period of time.

Hormonal therapies “are used and used in pediatric and adolescent medicine, for a lot, a lot, a long time,” he said. “Any person who has used combined

Controversy around surgeries

The review said he found three studies on surgeries for children or adolescents with gender dysphoria “with most considering only mastectomy.”

The mastectomy affirmed by the genre, colloquially known as “upper surgery”, is a surgical procedure that eliminates breast tissue to create a more masculine appearance chest.

The report said that the authors found a low certainty of evidence about the effects of surgeries that affirm gender in adolescents, including suicide, depression, asexual function, quality of life and repentance.

Ladinsky said there are no genital surgeries that affirm the genre that occurs in minors and that other surgeries that affirm gender in young children are not carried out.

“There is a very small group of trans-mashed old adolescents, which means 17 -ish, 18, which, in our evidence-based attention standard, based on the guide, allows a small group of these older transmasculine adolescents with overwhelming and sustained gender dysphoria to have a male chest surgery,” he said.

Ladinsky continued: “That is very, very rare and that procedure can only be done with long periods of supervision around gender dysphoria with doctors, the immense consent of parents and professional support for taking care of young people.”

HHS defends by psychotherapy

The HHS report advocates the use of psychotherapy as a treatment for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria.

“Psychotherapy is a non -invasive alternative to endocrine and surgical interventions for the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria,” the report said. “The systematic reviews of evidence have not found evidence of adverse effects of psychotherapy in this context.”

Karasic said that certain types of psychotherapy can be used to treat symptoms of anxiety and depression among segrenero and transgender people, but psychotherapy should not be considered a substitute for the attention affirmed by gender.

“There is absolutely no evidence that psychotherapy is a substitute for those people who need medical attention,” he told ABC News. “There is substantial evidence of the benefits of [gender-affirming] Take care of minors, and that is why all conventional medical and mental health groups support this instead of any evidence that psychotherapy is a substitute. “

Karasic said that psychotherapy is not bad, but has its place and, very often, children and adolescents receive psychotherapy along with medical intervention.

“If people propose the availability of therapy for the people who need it, I think everyone would agree with that,” he said. “But when people say that medical intervention should not be provided because therapy can be used instead, that is wrong. There is simply no evidence to support that.”

Medical Community Response

The American Academy of Pediatrics launched a statement On Thursday saying that it is “deeply alarmed” by the HHS report.

“For such analysis to have credibility, you must consider all the available data and the complete spectrum of clinical results instead of relying on selected perspectives and a narrow data set,” the declaration is read partly. “This report misrepresent the current medical consensus and does not reflect the realities of pediatric care.”

AAP also launched a statement With several groups, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical College, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Association of Psychiatry, opposing an infraction of medical care.

“Our organizations have constantly opposed any legislation, regulation or executive action that interferes with the confidential relationship between a patient and their doctor or undermines the provision of standards based on evidence of care and medical education and education,” the statement is told, published on Thursday. “Patients should be able to discuss health problems with their trusted doctor to determine together what attention is best for them.”

According to the legislative session, more than 500 projects of the anti-LGBTQ+ law have been introduced throughout the 2024 legislative session, according to the American union of civil liberties.

Ladinsky said that these bills are harmful and that they do not resolve gender dysphoria for anyone.

“If wrong information sanctioned by the government is used to make political decisions that affect millions of Americans, we are opening a pandora box to largely reduce the health of all people, instead of raising it,” he said. “The other thing is important is that we know 25 states that have lent illegal elements of this attention, it has not made any trans identity child no longer trans.”