4 times media, gov't promoted claims that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones are safe for kids
2. CNN report claims denying puberty blockers to kids is tantamount to denying treatment to a cancer patient
Framed under preventing suicide in a vulnerable population, CNN reported in January 2020 that drugs used to suppress puberty in gender-confused children can be “life-saving” and that using them is a “noninvasive process that can be reversed.”
"Historically we have known the puberty blockers are safe and effective and this is totally reversible, so the benefits far outweigh any risk. It is sort of a no-brainer to make these available in these circumstances," Dr. Michelle Forcier, a pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, told CNN.
The cable news outlet went on to cite Forcier as saying that nobody would deny a child suffering from asthma an inhaler or refuse cancer treatment for a child with cancer. When parents express reservations about the hormone suppressants she tells them the drugs are a "life-saving option." The article does not feature any voices critical of the experimental practices.
André Van Mol, a board-certified family physician in full-time practice in California who co-chairs both the American College of Pediatricians’ Committee on Adolescent Sexuality and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations Sexual & Gender Identity Task Force, told CP in an interview that asthma and gender dysphoria have little in common.
“Asthma can be diagnosed with objective testing and has proven treatments. Gender dysphoria does not,” Van Mol said.
“A patient who undergoes gender transitioning will be a patient for the rest of their life, with permanent need for sex hormones and management of their complications; if they engage in gender-affirming surgeries, they face management of possible surgical consequences. And none of these measures address the underlying issues of mental health and trauma comorbidities which 40 years of professional literature show are highly likely underlying the problem,” he explained.
He added that the relevant medical literature on the subject shows that 85% of those who suffer gender dysphoria go on to desist, and that the ethics of permanently medicalizing something at that rate based on a self-diagnosis is “highly suspect.”
"Someone can come to their senses later, but what’s gone is gone,” he said.
A handful of state lawmakers have raised objections to the medicalized gender-transitioning of children, the most notable of which came about in South Dakota last year. Yet, the legislative proposal was ultimately scuttled in the state Senate, in part because of transgender activism and the influence of the state Chamber of Commerce.
