An independent review published Wednesday concluded gender-confused children should not be given opposite-sex hormones because there is no evidence the life-altering drugs will “buy [them] time to think” or “reduce suicide risk.”
The “Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People” conducted by high-profile U.K. pediatrician Dr. Hillary Cass found that scientific evidence does not support the sterilizing procedures gender extremists demand.
“This is an area of remarkably weak evidence, and yet results of studies are exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint,” Cass wrote in her forward. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
The report, commissioned by England’s National Health Service in 2020, says chemical and surgical interventions on children deemed gender dysphoric does not lead to positive outcomes. The report warns the NHS to take “an extremely cautious clinical approach and a strong clinical rationale” when giving cross-sex hormones to anyone under the age of 18.
“Transitioning” children socially, cutting off their breasts or genitalia, and chemically castrating them wreak irreversible damage on their bodies and minds. In some cases, it can leave kids with harrowing, life-threatening consequences.
Cass was president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health from 2012 to 2015. She said it’s important to establish that “parents are not unconsciously influencing the child’s gender expression” and noted children with “gender distress” should be screened for various “neurodevelopmental conditions” before being prescribed hormones. She also urged the NHS to “ensure there is provision for people considering detransition, recognising that they may not wish to reengage with the services whose care they were previously under.”
One of the biggest bombshell admissions in Cass’s report is that many children struggling with their sex grow out of it.
“The current evidence base suggests that children who present with gender incongruence at a young age are most likely to desist before puberty, although for a small number the incongruence will persist,” the report states. “Parents and families need support and advice about how best to support their children in a balanced and non-judgemental way.”
A recently published Dutch study found most children and young adults with “gender non-contentedness” eventually outgrew that feeling of insecurity by 25 years old.
“For most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress. For those young people for whom a medical pathway is clinically indicated, it is not enough to provide this without also addressing wider mental health and/or psychosocially challenging problems,” Cass told The Guardian.
Medical and health organizations around the globe have made a big show in the last decade of declassifying transgenderism as a disorder despite research showing strong links between gender-bending and a multitude of mental health issues.
Activists have weaponized junk studies to insist that young, physically healthy individuals permanently sterilize themselves. They claim “affirming” a person’s rejection of his or her God-given sex can fix mental health problems, even those that predate gender dysphoria, and reduce suicide risk.
Cass’s study, however, found that many studies on the topic are of “poor quality.” Studies that did meet adequate scientific standards drew opposite conclusions about the effects of “transitioning.” Cass noted that, contrary to dominant media and government narratives, activist-pushed transgender interventions do not help a gender-dysphoric individual’s suicidal ideation.
“It has been suggested that hormone treatment reduces the elevated risk of death by suicide in this population, but the evidence found did not support this conclusion,” the report states.
Those who have warned against the dangers of extremist gender ideology for years celebrated the study as a win for children.
“For years, activists have relied on their own consensus to push experimental procedures on kids, but as the years have gone on, the body of evidence continues to grow in favor of biological reality and common sense,” Alliance Defending Freedom Vice President Jonathan Scruggs said in a statement. “The independent Cass report surveys numerous studies across many countries and many years and rightly concludes that this field is marked by ‘remarkably weak evidence’ where practitioners have ‘abandoned normal clinical approaches’ harming children.”
Author J.K. Rowling, who recently challenged Scotland’s new “hate crime” law that punishes people for saying men can’t become women, expressed frustration that Cass’ realizations were already being rejected by leftist media and Hollywood.
“If I sound angry, it’s because I’m bloody angry,” Rowling wrote on X. “I read Cass this morning and my anger’s been mounting all day. Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.”
