(ProsperNews.net) – Doctors from several countries are collectively raising concerns about so-called “gender-affirming care” and say it risks the health and well-being of young people struggling with their identity. In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, physicians from Western Europe (as well as South Africa) warned that American institutions continue to push ahead with hormonal and surgical intervention despite a change in policy in other Western countries.
The letter states that the US has become an outlier on the issue and continues to argue that gender-affirming care is healthy and “improves the well-being of transgender and gender-diverse people and reduces the risk of suicide.” The doctors maintain that there is no evidence that this is the case, and there is no way of knowing what impact gender-based medical intervention will have on patients in the future.
Last year, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) took a dramatic change in direction and began to warn that the consequences of gender treatment were unknown and the process should be treated with extreme caution. The NHS, which previously described puberty blockers as harmless and reversible, released new guidelines saying, “Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria.”
Similarly, in France, the National Academy of Medicine warned of an epidemic of children “identifying” as another gender and said social contagion was a primary driver. The Academy said social media, for example, encouraged young people to jump on a bandwagon that leads them to “undesirable effects and even serious complications.”
AbThe collective of doctors who wrote to the Wall Street Journal say psychotherapy, and not hormones and surgeries, should be the initial treatment offered to young people who believe they are transgender. It said medical groups should treat per the available evidence, and not exaggerate benefits while minimizing risk.
Jesus L. Penabad, an endocrinologist in Florida, added that the problem has become a left-right political battle in America, which distracts from scientific reality and patient well-being.
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