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| Michelle A. Cretella, M.D. |
Gender Dysphoria in Children
and Suppression of Debate
Michelle A. Cretella, M.D.
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
Volume 21 Number 2 Summer 2016
ABSTRACT
Gender dysphoria (GD) of childhood describes a psychological condition in which a child experiences marked incongruence between his experienced gender and the gender associated with his biological sex. When this occurs in the prepubertal 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. Modeled after a paradigm developed in the Netherlands, it involves pubertal suppression with gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists followed by the use of cross-sex hormones—a combination that will result in the sterility of minors. A review of the current literature suggests that this protocol is rooted in an unscientific gender ideology, lacks an evidence base, and violates the longstanding ethical principle of “First do no harm.”
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"Therefore, if and when valid transgender brain differences are identified, these will be more likely the result of transgender behavior than its cause..."
"To be clear, this 'alternate perspective' of an 'innate gender fluidity' arising from prenatally 'feminized' or 'masculinized' brains trapped in the wrong body is an ideological belief that has no basis in rigorous science."
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Conclusion
Gender dysphoria (GD) in children is a term used to describe a psychological condition in which a child experiences marked incongruence between his experienced gender and the gender associated with his biological sex. There is no rigorous scientific evidence that GD is an innate trait. Moreover, 80 percent to 95 percent of children with GD accept the reality of their biological sex and achieve emotional health by late adolescence. The treatment of GD in childhood with hormones effectively amounts to mass experimentation on, and sterilization of, youth who are cognitively incapable of providing informed consent. There is a serious ethical problem with allowing irreversible, life-changing procedures to be performed on minors who are too young to give valid consent themselves.
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"Therefore, if and when valid transgender brain differences are identified, these will be more likely the result of transgender behavior than its cause..."
"To be clear, this 'alternate perspective' of an 'innate gender fluidity' arising from prenatally 'feminized' or 'masculinized' brains trapped in the wrong body is an ideological belief that has no basis in rigorous science."
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Conclusion
Gender dysphoria (GD) in children is a term used to describe a psychological condition in which a child experiences marked incongruence between his experienced gender and the gender associated with his biological sex. There is no rigorous scientific evidence that GD is an innate trait. Moreover, 80 percent to 95 percent of children with GD accept the reality of their biological sex and achieve emotional health by late adolescence. The treatment of GD in childhood with hormones effectively amounts to mass experimentation on, and sterilization of, youth who are cognitively incapable of providing informed consent. There is a serious ethical problem with allowing irreversible, life-changing procedures to be performed on minors who are too young to give valid consent themselves.
PDF of full article
Michelle A. Cretella, M.D., is a board-certified pediatrician,
and serves as president of the American College of Pediatricians. ________________________________
SEE ALSO:
Gender Dysphoria intervention: Why hesitate? (Links list)
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You may be interested in philosophical article:
Herman Dooyeweerd: Gender Normativity
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SEE ALSO:
Gender Dysphoria intervention: Why hesitate? (Links list)
________________________________
You may be interested in philosophical article:
Herman Dooyeweerd: Gender Normativity
________________________________
