Constructive Criticism for TIME
Written by a Genspect parent and health professional.
On February 12, 2022, TIME Magazine published an article entitled Pediatricians who serve trans youth face increasing harassment. Lifesaving care could be on the line. To advance our goal of promoting comprehensive, evidence-based care for gender-questioning youth, Genspect provides below a partial list of the inaccuracies in the article, with referenced corrections.
- Referring to gender interventions in minors as “lifesaving care.”
Correction
The suicide risk of gender-questioning youth is sadly often exaggerated, and transition has not been shown to be prevent suicide. Top gender clinician Laura Edwards-Leeper has acknowledged that there is no evidence that failing to promptly start gender questioning youth on hormones will lead to suicide.
One of the few long-term outcome studies of gender transition, which spanned 30 years, showed that postoperative transsexuals (as they were then called) had nineteen times the population risk of suicide after transition. This study took place in Sweden, one of the most progressive and LGBT-friendly nations on earth.
There is a number of poor quality, easily refuted studies (and here) claiming the contrary. This includes the online survey conducted by the Trevor Project (which TIME references in the article), to which Genspect has already published a rebuttal.
2 “An emerging body of research has found that affirming care models can result in young people having fewer mental health concerns.”
Correction
The reference cited for this statement is an article for which Genspect has already published a rebuttal. It points out the serious limitations of all the studies cited in the article and explains the reality: there is no good evidence base for these interventions and that consensus in the field is notably lacking
So poor is the evidence base that Sweden has recently published new guidelines severely limiting the access of children under 18 to medical interventions and prioritizing psychotherapy.
In addition, the article makes no mention of the many adverse effects (and here) of medical interventions, which should be balanced against any purported benefits.
3. “130 anti-trans bills into state legislatures.”
Correction
The use of the term “anti-trans” clearly indicates that those proposing them intend to harm or discriminate against trans people. No evidence is presented for this view. In fact, it can be argued that these laws seek to protect young people from being rushed into irreversible medical interventions without appropriate care or oversight, which is occurring regularly, as outlined in point 6 below. However, as outlined previously by Genspect (and here), these proposed laws are very similar to what is happening in Finland and now Sweden.
4. “Only a small group of pediatricians provide such care in the U.S.”
Correction
This is misleading. There are many clinics in the US offering gender interventions to minors, as documented here. Many other doctors in addition to pediatricians – including endocrinologists and surgeons – are now providing these interventions.
5. “Trans and gender expansive children cannot receive affirming medical treatment without their parent’s or guardian’s consent in the U.S. healthcare system.”
Correction
This is untrue. There are states where gender-questioning minors can obtain medical and surgical interventions without parent consent or even knowledge (in some cases covered by parents’ insurance).
As journalist Abigail Shrier has outlines in this investigative piece:
“Pieced together, laws in California, Oregon, and Washington place troubled minor teens as young as 13 in the driver’s seat when it comes to their own mental health care—including “gender affirming” care—and renders parents powerless to stop them… A seventh grader could be entitled to embark on “gender affirming care”—which may include anything from a provider using the child’s name and pronouns to the kid preparing to receive a course of hormones—without her parents’ permission, against her parents’ wishes, covered by her parents’ insurance, and with the parents kept in the dark by insurance companies and medical providers.”
6. “Yet much of the criticism surrounding gender-affirming care operates from the misperception that young children are receiving rushed, unsupervised, irreversible treatments.”
“It is rare for a person under 18 to undergo any type of surgical intervention.”
Correction
This is not a misperception, and many minors are receiving surgical interventions. This project has documented that many clinics in the US are offering irreversible medical interventions to gender-questioning minors. It has also documented the surgeries being offered freely to young teens at multiple clinics in their undercover phone calls.
Leading gender clinicians Drs. Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Anderson have acknowledged that many minors are not receiving the comprehensive assessments or mental health care they need prior to being medically transitioned.
As just one example, the LA Children’s Hospital gender clinic advertises that it “rejects the gatekeeper model” for minors seeking “gender-affirming care” and aims to provide the “least restrictive environment possible.”
Many would regard what is called “gatekeeping” is actually providing comprehensive and appropriate mental health care – as, no doubt, would Edwards-Leeper and Anderson.
Youth from the age of 16 can receive irreversible cross-sex hormones at the first visit with parental consent at Planned Parenthood and without parental consent from age 18.
Girls as young as 13 are having “top surgery” (double mastectomies of healthy breasts). Surgeons promote the procedure freely on social media sites such as Tik Tok, which is very popular with young teens and preteens, and multiple teens post photos or footage of their naked chests showing their surgical scars, as easily found on YouTube.
More than 8,000 “top surgery” procedures were performed in the US in 2020 alone. The ages of patients are not available, but it is very likely that a large proportion were under the age of 25, as this is the age group in which rates of trans identification are currently skyrocketing. Genspect’s position is that people of this age do not have the cognitive maturity to make such irreversible decisions.
There are many testimonials from parents who were advised to medicate their troubled teens quickly, often based on the unfounded claim that they would otherwise commit suicide. In this example from Iowa, a pediatrician offered to prescribe puberty blockers to a 13-year old after one half-hour visit.
7. “There’s nothing grassroots about this at all,” argues Imara Jones, journalist and founder of TransLash Media, ……. “This is a highly organized movement that is targeting trans people and trans rights.”
Correction
This is incorrect. There is indeed a powerful grass roots movement.
PITT (Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans) parents write articles for free – more than100 so far. Notable among them is this one, which ably critiques the TIME article.
Thousands of parents and others in groups around the world have organically come together to fight the medicalization of minors and young adults. They are from all walks of life and of all political persuasions working to protect children. They are often vilified or threatened for their troubles.
It is somewhat concerning to see a reputable magazine describing lawful, peaceful demonstrations against controversial medical procedures which have no good evidence base as “harassment” and to describe the groups organizing these protests as “anti-trans.” It is also hard to see how a letter proclaiming “no child is born in the wrong body” can be equated with the abuse levelled at abortion providers. As pointed out in the PITT article cited above, TIME clearly did not engage with those carrying out the protests in order to ascertain their concerns or their point of view.
Of course, any form of actual threatening or abusive behavior (as described in the TIME article) is unacceptable, whoever perpetuates it. For the sake of balance, it would have been ideal if the article had mentioned the multitudes of death and rape threats made by those who support gender ideology, most of which are leveled against women.
8. “if a mental health issue does exist, it most often stems from stigma and negative experiences rather than being intrinsic to the child.”
Correction
There is no evidence presented that this is the case. On the contrary, many studies show a high rate of pre-existing issues that are unlikely to result from “stigma.” Many studies demonstrate the high levels of conditions such as autism, abuse and trauma (prior to trans identification), and serious mental health conditions including personality disorders, eating disorders, and schizophrenia. These are in addition to high rates of anxiety and depression.
Gender treatment guidelines themselves have documented these phenomena:
“A study of the mental health of trans young people living in Australia found very high rates of ever being diagnosed with depression (74.6%), anxiety (72.2%), post-traumatic stress disorder (25.1%), a personality disorder (20.1%), psychosis (16.2%) or an eating disorder (22.7%))
Some of these conditions (such as autism, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and pre-existing trauma) certainly are not caused by “stigma.” The others could just as likely have contributed to the gender issues, rather than being the result of stigma. That is, cause and effect cannot be established in a cross-sectional study design.
Many detransitioners are now coming out and testifying to how their mental health issues contributed to, or even caused, their trans identification.
9. ….“puberty blockers.” …. are “simply a pause button,” says Ladinsky, to stop the continued development of a puberty incongruent with a child’s gender identity. Used at this stage, blockers are reversible, says Ladinsky…
Correction
This is misleading. For accurate information, comprehensive information on puberty blockers, please go here.
The British NHS (National Health Service) has removed the claim about reversibility from their website and now states the following:
“Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria.
Although GIDS [Gender Identity Development Service] advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be.
It’s also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children’s bones”
A Swedish documentary has exposed the story of a young teen who developed osteopenia (thinning of the bones) and permanent vertebral damage due to puberty blocker use.
Top gender surgeon Marci Bowers (herself a transwoman) has explained how puberty blockers lead to stunting of male genitalia and possible permanent loss of the ability to orgasm.
This article regarding adolescent brain maturation states:
“The maturation of the adolescent brain is…….. influenced by heredity, environment, and sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone), which play a crucial role in myelination.” (boldface mine)
We thus do not know if puberty blockers (which block the production of these sex hormones) will interfere with this process and whether any such effects are “reversible.”
No one really knows if taking blockers for several years then stopping them will lead to resumption of normal puberty, as it so rarely happens. Almost all children who take them proceed to irreversible opposite-sex hormones. Hence there is no data to support the claim of reversibility.
Since gender clinicians are interfering in a profound way with a complex natural process, which we do not fully understand, Genspect asserts that the onus is on them to prove that puberty blockers are truly safe in the long term and are reversible in the event that the child changes his or her mind. At the moment, no such evidence is available, and the outcomes of this “unregulated live experiment on children” as described by Carl Henegan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, will not be fully known for decades.