ANALYSIS
(LifeSiteNews) – European medical officials have raised concerns about transgender drugs and surgeries, in contradiction to a push by LGBT activists to groom kids to take puberty blockers and permanently sever their reproductive ability through transgender surgeries.
LifeSiteNews has begun compiling a review of stories, data, and statements from credible medical officials on the topic of transgenderism and its harms. This article is the third in a series about the harms of transgenderism and includes insight from medical experts who have studied the issue of transgenderism.
They warn about “transitioning,” the impossible idea that a man can become a woman or a woman can become a man. The first article focused on individual stories of “detransitioners” and how transgender surgeries and drugs had harmed them. The second article focused on statements from American medical experts who studied this issue and concluded that “transitioning” of kids amounted to “child abuse” and is creating a “public health issue.
This series is meant to be a resource for confronting LGBT activists and helping gender-confused individuals realize the harms of “transitioning.”
Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare ‘recommends restraint’ with transgender drugs and surgeries
The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare released guidance in February 2022 that officially recommended against puberty blockers for children. The guidance reversed its previous position in 2015 in favor of the chemical mutilation of kids.
“Increased knowledge is needed, among other things, about the effects of the treatments on gender dysphoria and the mental health and quality of life of minors, in both the short and long term,” Dr. Thomas Linden, a member of the board, stated. He said that the risks of hormone drugs “outweigh the possible benefits.”
At the same time, the Swedish Board of Medical and Social Evaluation concluded that there is no evidence to support the chemical mutilation of children. After years of experimenting on children, “it is still not possible to draw any definite conclusions about the efficacy and safety of the treatments, based on scientific evidence,” the SBU stated.
READ: ‘Absolutely devastating’: Ex-transgender woman sues doctor after having womb, breasts removed
British health officials say evidence is lacking for use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) released two meta reviews of literature on the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in 2021.
The review of nine studies the purported to justify the use of transgender drugs revealed a lack of quality, including control groups. The medical review concluded that the studies were not trustworthy but were still used to promote puberty blocking drugs. “The quality of evidence for these outcomes was assessed as very low certainty using [a] modified [evidence review].”
“Studies that found differences in outcomes could represent changes that are either of questionable clinical value, or the studies themselves are not reliable and changes could be due to confounding, bias or chance,” the review concluded.
In other words, the so-called “evidence” for puberty blockers did not exist in the studies reviewed by the British health organization.
The second review of studies on cross-sex hormone usage also found that none of the ten studies used control groups.
NICE concluded in its review of those papers that the evidence was also lacking for their use. “All the studies included in the evidence review are uncontrolled observational studies, which are subject to bias and confounding and were of very low certainty using modified GRADE. A fundamental limitation of all the uncontrolled studies included in this review is that any changes in scores from baseline to follow-up could be attributed to a regression-to-the mean.”
French Academy of Medicine warns against puberty blockers
The French Academy of Medicine released a statement in 2022 that concluded that children should not be given puberty blockers.
“Great medical caution must be taken in children and adolescents, given the vulnerability, particularly psychological, of this population and the many undesirable effects, and even serious complications, that some of the available therapies can cause,” the medical group wrote. “In this respect, it is important to recall the recent decision (May 2021) of the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm to ban the use of hormone blockers.”
The use of puberty blockers must take “into account the side effects such as impact on growth, bone weakening, risk of infertility, emotional and intellectual consequences and, for girls, symptoms reminiscent of menopause.”
READ: Top Chicago children’s hospital gets millions from liberal family to push transgender ideology
It also warned about “social networks” leading more kids to identify as transgender. Formerly gender-confused woman Helena Kerschner said that Internet communities encouraged her to take puberty blockers and pretend to be a man for several years.
The Academy of Medicine called for “[t]he vigilance of parents in the face of their children’s questions about transidentity or their discomfort, emphasizing the addictive nature of excessive consultation of social networks which is both harmful to the psychological development of young people and responsible for a very important part of the growth of the feeling of gender incongruence.”
Finland protects kids from puberty blockers
Finnish health officials have also become concerned about the use of puberty blockers in minors.
The Council for Choices in Health Care in Finland, an advisory board to the national health service, issued new recommendations in 2020 urged caution when giving puberty blockers to children. While the council falsely claimed that someone can change his or her sex, it still told medical officials to delay puberty blockers to ensure that someone was not temporarily confused about their gender, according to the guidelines.
“A young person who has already undergone puberty can be sent to the research clinic on the gender identity of minors at [medical clinics] for extensive gender identity studies if the variation in gender identity and related dysphoria do not reflect the temporary search for identity typical of the development stage of adolescence and do not subside once the young person has had the opportunity to reflect on their identity but rather their identity and personality development appear to be stable,” the recommendations stated.
“Hormonal interventions” on minors can only begin “if it can be ascertained that their identity as the other sex is of a permanent nature and causes severe dysphoria. In addition, it must be confirmed that the young person is able to understand the significance of irreversible treatments and the benefits and disadvantages associated with lifelong hormone therapy, and that no contraindications are present,” the group stated.
The council noted that “data on the treatment of dysphoria due to gender identity conflicts in minors is limited” and there remains “a need for more information on the disadvantages of procedures and on people who regret them.”
The next segment in this series will focus on how social manipulation has led children to believe they can change their sex.