This Debate Concerns
More than Science
FIRST DO NO ARM!
Gender dysphoria (GD) of childhood describes a psychological condition in
which children experience a marked incongruence between their experienced
gender and the gender associated with their biological sex. When this occurs in
the pre-pubertal child, GD resolves in the vast majority of patients by late
adolescence.
Currently there is a vigorous, albeit suppressed, debate among
physicians, therapists, and academics regarding what is fast becoming the new treatment
standard for GD in children. This new paradigm is rooted in the assumption that
GD is innate, and involves pubertal suppression with gonadotropin releasing
hormone (GnRH) agonists followed by the use of cross-sex hormones—a combination
that results in the sterility of minors.
A review of the current literature suggests that this protocol is founded
upon an unscientific gender ideology, lacks an evidence base, and violates the
long-standing ethical principle of “First do no harm.” Gender Dysphoria in
Children: This Debate Concerns More than Science.........
Ethics alone demands an end to the use of pubertal suppression with GnRH
agonists, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgeries in children and
adolescents.
The College recommends an immediate
cessation of these interventions, as well as an end to promoting gender
ideology via school curricula and legislative policies.
Healthcare, school
curricula and legislation must remain anchored to physical reality.
Scientific
research should focus upon better understanding the psychological underpinnings
of this disorder, optimal family and individual therapies, as well as
delineating the differences among children who resolve with watchful waiting
versus those who resolve with therapy and those who persist despite therapy.......
