Spotlight

March 10, 2024

Gender Dysphoria and Anorexia in Adolescent Females

Significant parallels between gender dysphoria and anorexia in teen girls calls for a nuanced and developmentally-informed approach

A new publication* in Sexuologie (the journal of the German Society for Sexual Medicine, Sexual Therapy and Sexual Science/DGSMTW) takes on the issue of the sharp rise in...

February 23, 2024

Suicide Mortality Among Gender-Dysphoric Adolescents and Young Adults in Finland

The finding of low suicide rates and no evidence of benefits of gender reassignment continues to challenge the practice of youth transitions

Summary

A recent study published in BMJ Mental Health, All-cause and suicide mortalities among adolescents and young adults who contacted specialised gender identity services in Finland in 1996–2019, analyzed overall mortality...

February 1, 2024

The World Health Organization Clarifies its Plans to Issue Guidelines on Trans and Gender Diverse People—Significant Concerns Remain

WHO clarifies that “gender-affirmative care” is not supported by evidence in children and adolescents, but signals that it will recommend expanded hormone availability and legal recognition of self-determined gender for all others.

The World Health Organization issued an update on its plan to develop guidelines for "trans and gender diverse people." This Spotlight shares additional analysis of the WHO guideline development process and raises new concerns.

December 26, 2023

The World Health Organization Announces Transgender Guideline Plans

A biased panel composition and rushed process pose critical risk to WHO guideline credibility

Update: On January 15, 2024 the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new announcement, extending the public comment...

November 19, 2023

The 2023 Dutch Debate Over Youth Transitions

Medical, legal, and cultural debate over the practice of youth gender transitions has come to the birthplace of the Dutch Protocol

The Netherlands, like the rest of the Western world, has experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of youth seeking to undergo gender transition. Like the rest of the West, this sharp...

September 11, 2023

Accurate transition regret and detransition rates are unknown

Widespread methodological problems limit the reliability of “low transition regret” claims

Like all medical interventions, “gender-affirming” interventions are associated with a range of physical and mental health outcomes—both positive and negative. Regret and detransition are examples of negative outcomes. Proponents of youth gender transition assert that rates of regret and...

August 17, 2023

Denmark Joins the List of Countries That Have Sharply Restricted Youth Gender Transitions

The journal of the Danish Medical Association "Ugeskrift for Læger" confirms the change has occurred quietly but resolutely

A major medical journal Ugeskrift for Læger, the Journal of the Danish Medical Association, confirmed that there has been a marked...

August 13, 2023

Critical Appraisal of “Long-Term Regret and Satisfaction With Decision Following Gender-Affirming Mastectomy”

“Near-zero regret” findings among adults suffer from a critical risk of bias and have low applicability to youth

Recent research published in JAMA Surgery evaluated satisfaction and regret among individuals who had undergone...

August 6, 2023

The American Academy of Pediatrics 2023 Policy Update

The Society for Evidence-Based Medicine calls for an interim update based on existing systematic evidence reviews

We welcome the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) decision to update treatment recommendations for gender dysphoric youth based on the results of a systematic...

July 9, 2023

Transgender Identity and Suicide Attempts and Mortality in Denmark

Elevated rates of suicide despite wide accessibility of gender transition interventions

A recently published study from Denmark compared the rate of suicide attempts, suicide-related deaths, non-suicide-related deaths, and all-cause mortality between non-transgender and transgender-identifying individuals...

June 21, 2023

Iatrogenic Harm in Gender Medicine

Detransitioners deserve comprehensive medical and supportive care

In a new peer-reviewed commentary published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, author, Dr. Sarah Jorgensen, argues that the medical community has a professional responsibility to recognize detransitioners...

June 10, 2023

Springer to Retract a Key Paper in Response to Activist Demands

A deeply problematic precedent that may lead to thousands of retractions

UPDATE 11/18/2023: Following a retraction by Springer, the research was re-published by the Journal of Open Inquiry of the Behavioral Sciences (JOIBS). The research underwent a new peer-review process, which resulted in some...

June 8, 2023

Transition Regret and Detransition: Meaning and Uncertainties

A nuanced look at detransition and implications for youth transitioning today

A new peer-reviewed article, “Transition Regret and Detransition: Meaning and Uncertainties," published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, reviews clinical and research issues related to transition regret and...

April 18, 2023

Current Concerns About Gender-Affirming Therapy in Adolescents

The field of gender medicine must stop relying on social justice arguments and return to the time-honored principles of evidence-based medicine.

A new article in Springer’s Current Sexual Health Reports, “Current Concerns About Gender-Affirming Therapy in Adolescents,” provides an up-to-date overview of the current state of evidence about the practice of gender...

April 14, 2023

The Evidence to Support Medicalised Gender Transitions in Adolescents is Worryingly Weak

The following Economist article from April 5, 2023 has been reproduced fully, with permission

Prisha Mosley was 17 when she was first given testosterone in a clinic in North Carolina, after she had declared to her parents that she was a boy. She had struggled through her teen years with anorexia and depression after a sexual assault. Luka Hein had both breasts removed as a 16-year-old in...

March 30, 2023

Study of 1,655 Cases Supports the "Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria" Hypothesis

Parents report a deterioration in children's mental health and intrafamilial bonds following gender-transition

A new study examining 1,655 parental reports lends further credibility to the rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) hypothesis, first posited by Dr. Lisa Littman in 2018.

February 2, 2023

New "20-year" Study from Amsterdam's VUmc Youth Gender Clinic: A Critical Analysis

The study's conclusions and "clinical implications" are not supported by the data presented

A recent study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine reported demographic and treatment trends among gender-...

January 11, 2023

The Dutch Studies and The Myth of Reliable Research in Pediatric Gender Medicine

A new study identifying flaws in gender medicine research demands urgent attention from the medical community

A new open-access publication focuses on the two Dutch studies that gave rise to “gender-affirmative” care for youth worldwide, identifying profound problems and drawing the "gold standard" into question.

January 1, 2023

2022 Year-End-Summary

A remarkable year for safeguarding of vulnerable youth

2022 has been nothing short of remarkable for the field of youth gender medicine. Two leading countries in pediatric gender transition, England and Sweden, stopped or announced the intention to stop transitioning youth as routine medical practice. And just as the year...

December 30, 2022

False Assumptions Behind Youth Gender Transitions

A recent paper takes on 5 key faulty assumptions behind "gender-affirming" interventions for youth

A recent publication examines and refutes several key assumptions that underlie an influential “pro-affirmation” paper published by the journal Nature.

December 7, 2022

Gender‐Affirming Treatment of Gender Dysphoria in Youth: Are the Results Compromised by the Placebo Effect?

A perfect storm environment for the placebo effect

To what extent are the purported short-term psychological benefits of “gender-affirming” care, reported by some recent studies conducted by pediatric gender clinics, due to the placebo effect, rather than the hormonal and surgical interventions themselves? This question is the focus of a new...

November 25, 2022

Britain changes tack in its treatment of trans-identifying children

It may not be in time to prevent lawsuits

Is Britain tiptoeing away from a medical scandal? Until recently, many gender specialists in the National Health Service (NHS) treated trans-identifying children by broadly following an “affirmative” approach which accepts patients’ self-diagnosis as the starting-point for treatment. That can mean...

October 24, 2022

The NHS Ends the "Gender-Affirmative Care Model" for Youth in England

The gender-clinic model of care has been replaced with holistic support and appropriate care

Following extensive stakeholder engagement and a systematic review of evidence, England’s National Health Service (NHS) has issued new draft guidance for the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors, which sharply deviates from the “gender-affirming” approach.

September 20, 2022

Questioning America’s Approach to Transgender Health Care

The following Economist article has been reproduced fully, with permission.

When Jane Clark’s 15-year-old daughter told her that she thought she might be gay, Dr Clark, a paediatrician who calls herself a “typical west-coast liberal”, said, “ok, great.” When the child a few months later said she thought she was non-binary, “I was, like, I don’t know what that means, but ok...

August 2, 2022

Clinical Damage: The Tavistock Clinic’s closure follows a damning report on ideological malpractice

The following leading article from The Times (July 29th, 2022) has been reproduced fully, with permission

The damage done is immeasurable. No one knows how years of ideological dogma, inappropriate treatment and a culpable failure to consider the overall mental welfare of the children treated by the Tavistock Clinic will affect the thousands referred to its Gender Identity Development Service....

July 29, 2022

World's Largest Pediatric Gender Clinic Shut Down Due To Poor Evidence, Risk of Harm and Operational Failures

Treatment for gender dysphoria will be provided by established children's hospitals and will no longer be siloed under the "affirmative care" model

The UK’s National Health Service will close the world’s largest pediatric gender clinic, the Gender Identity Development Service in London (GIDS) often known as the Tavistock, after the NHS Trust which houses it. An independent review condemned the clinic as “not a safe or viable...

July 1, 2022

What Went Wrong at the Tavistock Clinic for Trans Teenagers?

The following Special Report from The Times (June 17th, 2022) has been reproduced fully, with permission

The Tavistock Centre in northwest LondonROMAS FOORD; GETTY IMAGES

For me it began with a graph. In 2017, I was shown a chart of children referred to GIDS, the Tavistock and Portman Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service clinic in northwest London. Overall case numbers had...

May 6, 2022

Early Social Gender Transition in Children is Associated with High Rates of Transgender Identity in Early Adolescence

A new study lends credibility to concerns that early social gender transition can lead to persistence of pediatric gender dysphoria

A recent study published in Pediatrics examined the five-year gender identity development trajectory of trans-identified children who underwent early social gender transition. The study suggests that children who claim a transgender identity and undergo early social transition rarely...

April 7, 2022

Fact-Checking the HHS

"Gender-Affirming Care and Young People" contains a number of errors and misrepresentations

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an official document entitled "Gender-Affirming Care and Young People". The document purported that the use of “gender-affirming” hormonal and surgical interventions for youth struggling with gender dysphoria is “crucial to...

March 22, 2022

Informed Consent for Gender-Affirmative Care

Reconsidering informed consent for trans-Identified children, adolescents, and young adults

Trans-identified youth present to clinicians as strongly desiring hormones and surgery. However, this conviction should not be confused with the capacity to carefully consider the consequences of gender transition, argues a recent article about informed consent in gender medicine,...