Peer-reviewed HHS report reveals the real dangers of gender ideology

Chloe Cole was thirteen years old when doctors put her on puberty blockers and testosterone. By fifteen, surgeons had removed her breasts. She sat before Congress recently, a young woman bearing the scars of a medical system that failed her, and recounted the coercion aimed at her parents. “They asked my parents, ‘Do you want a dead daughter or a living transgender son?’”

She is not alone.

Layla Jane was ten, a fourth grader, when the chemical regimen began. By thirteen, she too underwent a double mastectomy. Now eighteen, she is suing Kaiser Permanente, noting “a series of health struggles brought on by the ‘permanent irreversible mutilation,’ including inability to breastfeed, increased likelihood of an inability to conceive, and endocrine problems.”

Luka Hein was sixteen when she underwent a double mastectomy—after a therapist diagnosed her with gender dysphoria in just 55 minutes. Instead of treating her underlying trauma, she says doctors “affirmed that chaos into reality.” When she later told her doctor she regretted the operation, the response was chilling: “I guess this is just part of your gender journey.”

Exposing the Industry

Last week, the federal government validated every warning issued by concerned parents and ethical doctors for the last decade.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a sweeping, peer-reviewed report that dismantles the false narrative surrounding pediatric gender transition. The findings are devastating for the gender industry. Leor Sapir, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, and Alex Byrne, MIT philosopher, concluded that the evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones on minors is “very weak” and that the evidence for harms is “stronger.”

While the benefits, according to the report, are unproven, the harms are terrifyingly real and often irreparable. The report spells out that “the harms from sex-rejecting procedures, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations, are significant, long-term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. saw the evidence and called it what it is. “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,” he stated. “That is not medicine—it’s malpractice.”

These findings cannot be dismissed as partisan politics. The report’s authors are a politically diverse group of independent experts who simply followed the evidence. As the authors noted, “We are a politically diverse group, including Democrats.” They found that the studies used to justify these life-altering procedures are of poor quality, often conducted by the very clinics profiting from the treatments.

As the City Journal noted that the HHS authors “sought out peer reviews from the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP),” but “neither organization took them up on the offer.” Instead, they attacked the findings after they were published. As the article notes, these organizations “have continued to promote pediatric medical transition despite its failure to meet the standards of evidence-based medicine.”

It is a desperate defense from institutions caught betraying their oath to “do no harm.” Peer reviewer Johan C. Bester, a professor of medical ethics at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, stated that there is “no obligation on medical professionals to offer non-beneficial treatments, and there is no patient right to demand non-beneficial treatments.”

Restoring Science to Medicine

Center for Arizona Policy has fought to stop these experimental treatments. Even as Sweden and Finland changed their protocols based on safety data, U.S. officials dug in their heels. Our partners at the California Family Council (CFC) witnessed this same refusal.

As CFC Vice President Greg Burt noted, “California lawmakers ignored evidence for years, hiding behind organizations motivated by a quest to legitimize transgender ideology.”

In California, legislators dismissed critics as “fearmongering.” Here in Arizona, Center for Arizona Policy has sounded the same alarm.

We pointed to the biological reality that up to 95% of children who express gender confusion eventually embrace their true sex if allowed to mature naturally. We warned that the rush to label children as transgender, pump them with hormones, and surgically alter their bodies violates foundational rights and human dignity.

The medical community ignored biological reality. They ignored the parents. They ignored the research. They ignored the data.

Now, the National Institutes of Health is signaling a massive course correction. NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya called the report a “turning point,” promising that “science, not ideology” will guide future research.

This vindication comes too late for Chloe, Layla, and Luka. It cannot restore lost fertility or heal physical scars. But it gives us the ammunition we need to protect the next generation. It strips the “medical consensus” argument away from school boards that hide student identities from parents. It removes the shield of “healthcare” from legislative attempts to block bans on these gruesome procedures.

The evidence is undeniable, and the excuse of ignorance is gone. We must ensure our leaders stop deferring to ideologues and start protecting our children.

We Still Need Your Signature

Prop 409 passed, giving Valleywise Health its $898 million bond – but not a blank check.

Our petition demands one thing: a public commitment that no taxpayer dollars expand Valleywise’s transgender programs, directly or indirectly. Not one cent for cross-sex hormones. Not one facility used to grow these harmful practices.

We need more signatures. Valleywise needs to see the pressure building.

Sign at azpolicy.org/valleywise-health-pledge. Then share it with everyone who cares about where their tax dollars go.

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