HHS Denounces 'Destructive' Gender-Altering Procedures on Kids

In a striking new report, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has denounced so-called "gender-affirming care," saying those practices are "destructive" and therefore not an acceptable treatment for pediatric gender dysphoria. 

The review titled, "Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices," analyzes the impact of treatments like puberty blockers, hormones, and gender-altering surgeries.

"Thousands of American children and adolescents have received these interventions," reads the report. 

"Society has a special responsibility to safeguard the well-being of children. Given that the challenges faced by these patients intersect with deeply contested issues of moral and social significance—including social identity, sex and reproduction, bodily integrity, and sex-based norms of expression and behavior—the medical practices that have recently emerged to address their needs have become a focus of significant controversy," it continues.

The report notes that these medical interventions on children carry "significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret."

And while the report admits it is "not a clinical practice guideline" and does not contain legislative or policy recommendations, the document is for "policymakers, clinicians, therapists, medical organizations and, importantly, patients and their families."

The new report comes as a result of the "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation" executive order signed by President Donald Trump in late January. 

The order reiterates the administration's strong position to protect what it considers to be the nation's most vulnerable – gender-confused minors. 

"Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child's sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions," reads the order. 

"It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures," it continues.

The order not only directs federally-run insurance programs to stop funding these procedures but also directs the HHS to issue regulations improving the health of minors with gender dysphoria without blatantly harming them. 

"Our duty is to protect our nation's children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions," said National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya in a statement. "We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas."

The report points out that in most areas of medicine, treatments are first established as safe and effective in adults before being offered to children, but this was not the case when it came to treating gender dysphoria. 

"The opposite occurred: clinician-researchers developed the pediatric medical transition protocol in response to disappointing psychosocial outcomes in adults who underwent medical transition," it reads.

The analysis was critical of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which released clinical guidelines for gender dysphoria. 

"In the process of developing SOC-8, WPATH suppressed systematic reviews its leaders believed would undermine its favored treatment approach. SOC-8 developers also violated conflict of interest management requirements and eliminated nearly all recommended age minimums for medical and surgical interventions in response to political pressures," the report explained.

"Although SOC-8 relaxed the eligibility criteria for access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, there is compelling evidence that U.S. gender clinics are not adhering even to those more permissive criteria," it continues.

As CBN News reported, a condemning report by the U.S.-based think tank, Environmental Progress in 2024, confirmed that the organization was "fully aware that children and adolescents cannot comprehend the lifelong consequences of 'gender-affirming care,' and in some cases, due to poor health literacy, neither can their parents." 

Environmental Progress contended that WPATH members demonstrated "a lack of consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects of cross-sex hormones and other treatments."

HHS's analysis comes on the heels of the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) stating that they believe allowing teens to transition genders socially or medically does not lead to better mental health outcomes for those individuals.

In an official position statement titled "Mental Health in Adolescents with Incongruence of Gender Identity and Biological Sex," authors concluded, after reviewing more than 60 studies on the matter, that social transition, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones have no long-term benefit on the psychosocial well-being of adolescents with gender confusion.

"We urge medical professionals and parents to affirm the truth about childhood gender dysphoria in the presence of harmful thoughts and address the underlying mental illness, adverse events, and family dysfunction," lead author of the position statement and Vice President of ACPeds, Dr. Jane Anderson said. 

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