A peer-reviewed assessment did not find any major faults in a Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) report that concluded that gender-transition treatments on minors are dangerous and not evidence-based.
The original report, released in May through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, reviewed the standards for treating children with gender dysphoria and concluded that the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries risk serious long-term health consequences such as “infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.”
Nine different experts—including physicians, researchers, and ethicists—analyzed the report and found no major faults in the report.
“They were given the chance to show mistakes, show errors. And they were not able to identify any,” Leor Sapir, one of the report researchers, explained to the New York Post. “They had some minor comments here and there, but nothing that gets to the main findings about evidence and ethics.”
The report, “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices,” was commissioned by President Donald Trump in a January executive order. In his order, he directed the HHS to “publish a review of the existing literature on best practices for promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which oppose legislation restricting transgender treatments on children.
“The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics peddled the lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children,” Kennedy said in a press release. “They betrayed their oath to first do no harm, and their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. That is not medicine—it’s malpractice.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, says the data serves as a reminder that science will always eventually conform to the Bible.
“Science, when pursued honestly, eventually catches up to biblical truth,” Perkins posted. “This new federal report confirms what many have long warned—that rushing vulnerable young people into irreversible procedures was driven more by ideology than evidence. It vindicates every parent, pastor, doctor, and policymaker who refused to bow to the deception of this age.”
Walt Heyer, senior fellow at the Family Research Council, says the report supports “the need for protecting children from the harmful effects of the insane madness of hormones and surgery.”
Heyer underwent hormone therapy and gender transition surgeries and presented himself as a woman for eight years before he became a Christian and experienced radical transformation. Now, he is standing for children who are facing some of the same ideas he encountered when he struggled with gender dysphoria.
“As someone who started publishing articles about protecting children from hormones as far back as January 2015,” Heyer said. “I’m thrilled HHS under the guidance of the Trump administration has published this report that echoes everything people on the ‘right side’ have been saying for many years.”
