A surgeon and psychologist have teamed up to denounce the effectiveness of puberty blockers and decy the conformity within the medical community about the transgender debate.
Dr. Marci Bowers, a surgeon who performs gender reassignment surgeries and Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist, are trans-identifying men who go by female names and are members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health or WPATH, which seeks to "[set] the standards worldwide for transgender medical care."
According to the Christian Post, Dr. Bowers had been tasked to lead WPATH in 2022 and believes that there are certain individuals within the organization who are "trying to keep out anyone who doesn't absolutely buy the party line that everything should be affirming, and that there's no room for dissent." Bowers said that people tend to lean left or right with certain issues but "I think maybe we zigged a little too far to the left in some cases."
Dr. Bowers and Anderson sat down for a revelatory interview with Wall Street Journal contributor Abigail Shrier published on Substack. Shrier argued that a similar mentality is present in corporate media, sharing that Anderson told her how he submitted a co-authored story to The New York Times "warning that many healthcare providers were treating kids recklessly" but that the Times declined the story, saying that it was "outside our coverage priorities right now."
Despite having been the surgeon who performed the trans-affirming operation on trans reality star Jazz Jennings, Bowers is now sounding the alarm on some of the consequences of puberty blockers, arguing that, "if you've never had an orgasm pre-surgery, and then you're puberty's blocked, it's very difficult to achieve that afterwards."
Dr. Bowers added that the risks of puberty blockers actually outweigh its benefits. The doctor admitted to have felt "proud" to have executed "magnificent surgeries" on kids who are "so determined," but added, "I can't sit here and tell you that they have better - or even as good - results."
But why is Dr. Bowers so concerned about trans youth? "They're not as functional," the surgeon said. "I worry about their reproductive rights later. I worry about their sexual health later and ability to find intimacy."
According to Shrier, the U.S.' adoption of affirming trans-identifying children with puberty blockers as a standard operating procedure is because of the country's acceptance of the Dutch Protocol, a treatment guideline that portrays puberty blockers in a positive way.
The justification behind the Dutch Protocol was that children who suffered with gender dysphoria since preschool should not be subjected to ensure puberty "with all its discomforts and embarrassments," therefore the child should transition earlier, before puberty. Shrier added that when a hospital in the U.S. first began adopting the Dutch Protocol in 2007, "researchers believed blockers' effects were reversible." Dr. Bowers on the other hand, is "not a fan."
Dr. Bowers and Anderson both recognize "rapid onset gender dysphoria," the phenomenon in which there is a steady increase in the number of biological females wanting to change their gender.
In fact, a survey conducted by conducted by the American College Health Association on 70,000 American college students revealed that the share of share of biological female college students who identify as transgender has risen from 1 in 2,000 in 2008 to 1 in 20 in 2021. Moreover, the number of gender clinics in the U.S. has also risen from one in 2007 to hundreds more in 2021.
"We're going to have more young adults who will regret having gone through this process," as a result of doctors "rushing people through the medicalization" and refusing to "evaluate the mental health of someone historically in current time, and to prepare them for making such a life-changing decision," Anderson argued.
The solution, Anderson hopes, is for parents to consider their children's mental health first before rushing to confirm genders through more damaging or permanent methods.
