US study finds no clear benefits, serious risk to gender-altering treatment for children
May 01, 2025
» Continue to this story on HHS
CWN Editor's Note: A new study from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finds no evidence of medical benefits, and significant health risks, in gender-altering treatment of children.
“The evidence for benefit of pediatric medical transition is very uncertain, while the evidence of harms is less uncertain,” concludes “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria,” a major study of available medical evidence.
The evidence cited by proponents of “gender-affirming” treatment, the HHS finds, is “based entirely on subjective self-reports and behavioral observations, without any objective physical, imaging, or laboratory markers.” The treatments themselves “risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.”
Examining the claim that “transgender” children may commit suicide if they are denied “gender-affirming” treatment, the HHS study concludes that there is no evidence the treatment reduces the incidence of suicide—“which remains, fortunately, very low.”
Regarding claims that patients have a right to surgery they desire, HHS observes: “The principle of autonomy in medicine establishes a moral and legal right of competent patients to refuse any medical intervention. However, there is no corollary right to receive interventions that are not beneficial.”
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