Last week, it was quietly announced that the Washington University School of Medicine Pediatric Gender Center at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Children’s Hospital will be permanently closed. To the clinic’s clients and supporters, this may feel like a tornado ripping through a cherished institution.
I admit this is in no small part because of me. I am a graduate of Washington University with a Masters of Science in clinical research management. I am also a gay woman, a mom, a fierce LGBT rights advocate, and a lifelong midwesterner. It is my strong commitment to the LGBT community that led me to blow the whistle on practices I had witnessed.
I’ve been asked many times, including by fellow members of the LGBT community, if I regret what I did. The truth is that every day that goes by I grow more confident that I did the right thing.
Read the news article: WashU Transgender Center at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Children’s Hospital closing, whistleblower says
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Since going public with my concerns about how the clinic was harming kids, I met and grew close to a U.K. psychologist, Anna Hutchinson, a gay woman who blew the whistle on the Gender Identity Development Services, where similar harmful practices occurred.
England has now not only shut down GIDS, but banned puberty blockers in gender distressed kids — a move supported both by Tories and the incoming Labour government.
The concerns Hutchinson and I have expressed over pediatric gender transition are rooted in our shared belief that gender nonconformity, which is natural and healthy, is being treated as a “condition†to be “treated†through lifelong, irreversible, and harm-inducing medical interventions.
We came to the realization that young gender nonconforming kids do not need an endocrinologist, they need social acceptance. Gay kids, who are all too often tormented for acting in ways expected of the other sex, are especially in need of being affirmed — as members of their actual sex.
The center had opened in response to pressure from parents who were desperate for their children to fit in and feel at home in their bodies. Led by true believers, the clinic ignored growing international concerns about a weak evidence base and pressured its staff to suppress doubt that what we were doing actually helps.
I shared my concerns, but was told to remain silent. Innovation in medicine is necessary, but when impervious to evidence it amounts to unethical experimentation.
Since I went public, three events have shaken the world of youth gender medicine further and confirmed by concerns:
First, the World Health Organization stated that “the evidence base†for medical transition of children and adolescents “is limited and variable.â€
Second, a four-year review by one of the U.K.’s most trusted pediatricians, which included seven new systematic reviews of evidence, concluded that “children have been let down by a lack of research and remarkably weak evidence.â€
The author of the review said that this area of medicine is “built on shaky foundations†and that U.S. gender clinicians who support the “gender-affirming†model are “out of date.â€
Third, private communications from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health that were subpoenaed in a lawsuit over Alabama’s age restriction law revealed that the leading transgender medicine group suppressed evidence that it didn’t like and deliberately misled the public in its recommendations.
These are by no means the only revelations that support my position, but they are critical developments that no honest defender of child welfare can ignore.
But another opportunity is now presenting itself. As the Washington University center permanently closes, a cohort of young people who have received these drugs and surgeries need — nay, deserve — proper, evidence-based long term care. Let’s survey the damage, account for all patients, and rebuild.
These kids deserve holistic mental health care, lifetime fertility counseling and support, detransition care if they desire it, and long-term monitoring for a range of health risks associated with hormones and surgeries.
We innovated, and failed, but that should not be a reason for us to stop innovating. As a lifelong ºüÀêÊÓƵan, I believe that we, as midwesterners, can lead the way once again, but this time guided by the principles of evidence-based medicine and a respect for gender nonconformity.
The closure of my former clinic presents us with an opportunity to set the ship right and become national leaders.
Read the news article: WashU Transgender Center at ºüÀêÊÓƵ Children’s Hospital closing, whistleblower says