In March, England sent shockwaves around the world when its National Health Service (NHS) announced that children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, which Townhall covered. This bold move came after Dr. Hilary Cass, a pediatrician, published a review into the support and treatment offered to children who think they’re born with the wrong gender. She concluded that so-called “gender-affirming” care for kids is built on “shaky foundations.”
Shortly after, the NHS announced it would go a step further and review all transgender treatments for children.
In an interview with The New York Times this week, Cass said that she believes that medical groups in the United States are misleading the public about transgender health care, especially as it pertains to children. This comes as many states in the U.S. have outright banned this kind of “care” for children (via NYT):
I’ve reached out to major medical groups in the United States about your findings. The American Academy of Pediatrics declined to comment on your report, citing its own research review that is underway. It said that its guidance, which it reaffirmed last year, was “grounded in evidence and science.”
The Endocrine Society said “we stand firm in our support of gender-affirming care,” which is “needed and often lifesaving.”
I think for a lot of people, this is kind of dizzying. We have medical groups in the United States and Britain looking at the same facts, the same scientific literature, and coming to very different conclusions. What do you make of those responses?
When I was president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, we did some great work with the A.A.P. They are an organization that I have enormous respect for. But I respectfully disagree with them on holding on to a position that is now demonstrated to be out of date by multiple systematic reviews.
It wouldn’t be too much of a problem if people were saying “This is clinical consensus and we’re not sure.” But what some organizations are doing is doubling down on saying the evidence is good. And I think that’s where you’re misleading the public. You need to be honest about the strength of the evidence and say what you’re going to do to improve it.
I suspect that the A.A.P., which is an organization that does massive good for children worldwide, and I see as a fairly left-leaning organization, is fearful of making any moves that might jeopardize trans health care right now. And I wonder whether, if they weren’t feeling under such political duress, they would be able to be more nuanced, to say that multiple truths exist in this space — that there are children who are going to need medical treatment, and that there are other children who are going to resolve their distress in different ways.
In 2022, England’s NHS issued guidance on treating children and young people with gender dysphoria, the condition where someone feels that their gender does not align with their biological sex. In the guidance, they said that physicians should be open to “exploring all developmentally appropriate options” for children who are showing signs of gender dysphoria, keeping in mind that “this may be a transient phase.”
The report added that “social transitioning” should not be seen as a “neutral act” due to the impact it makes on a child’s psychology. Social transitioning includes going by a different name, using “preferred pronouns” and dressing like the opposite gender. In some cases, they will use bathrooms that align with their gender identity instead of their biological sex.
“The clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that the child may experience in returning to the original gender role upon entering puberty if the gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence,” the report stated.
Not to mention, more than 70 children aged three and four were sent to the United Kingdom’s NHS dedicated pediatric transgender clinic before it was shut down, which Townhall covered. The closure of the clinic came in response to recommendations from an “expert review.” The review criticized the clinic’s long waiting lists and “raised concerns over a lack of consensus about how the health service should assess, diagnose and treat young people seeking gender services,” Reuters noted.