'Medically Appalling': New Studies Confirm Transgender Transitions Harmful to Children

New studies confirm gender reassignment surgeries are failing to improve the lives of people struggling with their gender identity. Instead, these so-called treatments are worsening mental health, contributing to increased feelings of loneliness, and in some cases increasing suicide rates.

In a study published in May, researchers at the University of Hamburg Medical Center found that "transgender and gender diverse people, who have undergone gender reassignment surgery feel lonelier."

Another study released days later, found that nearly half of the transgender people in the study have varying levels of being "unsatisfied" with their lives.

In a Heritage Foundation report published last year, Senior Research Fellow Dr. Jay Greene observed a correlation between minors who had fewer barriers to accessing hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery with higher suicide rates. 

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"Lowering legal barriers to make it easier for minors to undergo cross-sex medical interventions without parental consent does not reduce suicide rates—in fact, it likely leads to higher rates of suicide among young people in states that adopt these changes," he wrote.

Greene advised, "States should instead adopt parental bills of rights that affirm the fact that parents have primary responsibility for their children's education and health, and that require school officials and health professionals to receive permission from parents before administering health services, including medication and gender-change counseling, to children under 18.

Nearly 15 states have adopted policies that prohibit the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgeries for children.

But as CBN News reported, pediatric gender medicine has skyrocketed in the U.S. with clinics opening across the country leading to an explosion in treatments.

One recent study shows chest surgeries alone jumped 389% from 2016 to 2019.

The battle over gender-confused children's identity and innocence is often falling into the hands of the court.

A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law Tuesday that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers.

Judge Robert Hinkle contends banning transgender treatment will put children struggling with gender dysphoria at greater risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide.

But Dr. Debra Soh, a sex neuroscientist, says studies that prove gender reassignment surgeries and hormone therapy are harmful to children are often ignored.

"An existing body of research shows that most kids with gender dysphoria grow to be comfortable in their bodies upon undergoing puberty and that those wishing to transition suddenly post-puberty may be experiencing a social contagion. These studies have been dismissed because they don't fit the preferred activist narrative," she wrote in the Washington Examiner.

Jamie Reed, a far-Left LGBT activist who worked for four years at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, revealed that the medical industry is using high-pressure techniques to coerce parents into consenting for their children to get "transgender treatment."

"What's happening to children is morally and medically appalling," she wrote in February.

"I left the clinic in November of last year because I could no longer participate in what was happening there. By the time I departed, I was certain that the way the American medical system is treating these patients is the opposite of the promise we make to 'do no harm.' Instead, we are permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care," she explained.

Meanwhile, nations in Europe are halting "gender-affirming care" for minors in an effort to safeguard children.

Norway has now joined Finland and Sweden in adopting or changing policies that signal rejection of transgender ideology.

The Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board has announced it will be revising its guidelines on the use of puberty blockers and gender-reassignment surgeries because there is a lack of medical research to support the use of those protocols.

And one of Australia's largest medical insurers is now refusing to cover private practitioners who are prescribing gender-transitioning procedures.

As CBN's Faithwire reported, England's National Health Service issued guidance to doctors to recognize that minors struggling with their gender identity should be treated with the understanding that "gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence."

"The only way individuals dealing with gender dysphoria will come to live happy, healthy, and authentic lives is by addressing the source of their dysphoria and pursuing healing…Until these root issues are properly dealt with, these individuals will not be completely satisfied," said Mary Beth Waddell, director of Federal Affairs for Family and Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council.