A recent op-ed “Truth about gender-affirming care for NH youth from Dartmouth Health Children’s” assures us Dartmouth’s practices are grounded in “evidence-based treatment protocols.”
But authors Dr. Francis-Lim Liberty, head of the pediatric transgender program, and colleagues Dr. Keith Loud and Jessica Smith, don’t bother to provide that evidence. They also don’t explain how it led them to such different conclusions than France, England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland whose health agencies have either restricted puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors or issued stern warnings about their dangers.
Medical experts in Sweden combed through 9,934 abstracts, assessed the quality of the relevant research, and concluded that “hormonal treatment of gender dysphoria in this age group should be regarded as experimental treatment rather than standard procedure.”
The National Health Service England all but banned the use of puberty blockers last month. They have also restricted cross-sex hormones to clinical research settings after systematic reviews showed no sound evidence these treatments improved mental health. Their statement explains:
We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of [puberty blockers] to make the treatments routinely available at this time.
Dartmouth Health has testified that puberty blockers are safe and reversible. Combined with cross-sex hormones, they’re supposedly life-saving care. But no one knows the long-term effects of puberty blockers. There is evidence that they cause bone loss and lower IQ. A new study from the Mayo Clinic shows that puberty blockers cause mild to severe atrophy to boys’ sex glands.
Related: Trans or Die: The Ideological Blindness of a Dartmouth Health Endocrinologist
Far from being a “pause button,” almost every child who takes puberty blockers moves on to cross-sex hormones. Effects of cross-sex hormones include painful genital growth and atrophy of the reproductive and urinary systems. They also raise the risk of heart disease and cancer.
“Policies that are based on opinion and confusion rather than science or facts are not good for anyone,” Dartmouth Health asserts. Fair enough. Instead of giving us blanket assurances and citing the authority of major medical associations, why doesn’t Dartmouth Health share the evidence that supports its practices? Better yet, why don’t they share their own aggregate data regarding how these treatments affect their own patients’ cognitive ability and physical and emotional health?
Is Dartmouth Health needlessly sterilizing children? @DartmouthHealth #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/n3HYjyh9DO
— Sidewalk Steve (@Sidewalk_Steve) February 26, 2023
