Leaked internal documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the leading global medical body behind developing “standards of care” for transgender treatments, show members improvising experimental treatments and consistently violating medical ethics and informed consent, according a report published Tuesday by the U.S.-based thinktank Environmental Progress.
The 242-page report analyzes hundreds of pages of internal posts and videos obtained by Environmental Progress founder and president Michael Shellenberger, and argues that WPATH, despite purporting to support “evidence-based” medical interventions, advocates for “arbitrary medical practices, including hormonal and surgical experimentation on minors and vulnerable adults.”
The report states that WPATH members “are fully aware that children and
adolescents cannot comprehend the lifelong consequences of ‘gender-affirming care,’ and in some cases, due to poor health literacy, neither can their parents.”
“In the WPATH Files, members demonstrate a lack of consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects
of cross-sex hormones and other treatments,” the report reads.
“There is also evidence that patients with severe mental health issues, such as schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, are being allowed to consent to life-altering hormonal and surgical interventions without members making any attempt to first address these underlying issues,” the report continues.
The report details several instances of WPATH members prescribing hormones and other treatments to patients with severe mental illnesses and to minors.
One example shows Dr. Dan Karasic, the lead author of WPATH’s standards of care most recent guidance regarding mental health, dismissing concerns of a nurse practitioner struggling with how to handle a patient with PTSD, major depressive disorder, observed dissociations, and schizoid typical traits who wished to go on hormone therapy.
“I’m missing why you are perplexed… The mere presence of psychiatric illness
should not block a person’s ability to start hormones if they have persistent gender dysphoria, capacity to consent, and the benefits of starting hormones outweigh the risks…So why the internal struggle as to ‘the right thing to do?’,” Dr. Karasic wrote, according to the report.
Another example cites a “gender therapist” who said they have written letters approving of gender surgery for every patient who requested one in the past 15 years, including mentally ill patients, except for one who “was in active psychosis and hallucinated during the assessment session.”
“Other than that – nothing – everyone got their assessment letter, insurance approval, and are living (presumably) happily ever after,” the gender therapist wrote, per the report.
Environmental Progress said that WPATH exhibits a lack of concern regarding young people regretting losing their ability to reproduce due to hormonal treatments, with internal communications showing discussions regarding the difficulty of explaining to minors the long-term consequences of “gender-affirming care.”
“Some of the Dutch researchers gave some data about young adults who had
transitioned and [had] reproductive regret, like regret, and it’s there, and I don’t
think any of that surprises us,” Dr. Daniel Metzger, Canadian endocrinologist and WPATH member is cited as writing in the report.
“We’re often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven’t even had
biology in high school yet,” Dr. Metzger wrote in an internal WPATH communication, according to the report.
[RELATED: MaineHealth Insider Sounds Alarm: Trans Kids on Hormones Frequenting ER for Self-Harm…]
The report goes on to reference an internal panel discussion in which Dr. Metzger described how patients exhibit regret regarding losing their fertility.
“It’s always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year-old, but I know I’m talking to a blank wall. They’d be like, ew, kids, babies,
gross…“ the report cites Dr. Metzger as stating.
“I think now that I follow a lot of kids into their mid-twenties, I’m like, Oh, the
dog isn’t doing it for you, is it?” They’re like, ‘No, I just found this wonderful partner, and now want kids…’ So I think, you know, it doesn’t surprise me…” he continued.
Metzger reportedly admitted during the panel discussion that “Most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of a brain space to really talk about [fertility preservation] in a serious way.”
One exchange between two WPATH doctors discusses instances of patients undergoing hormone treatments as part of a gender “transition” developing cancer, and acknowledges the hormone treatments as carcinogenic agents.
“[16-year-old female patient] found to have two liver masses (hepatic adenomas) 11x11cm and 7x7cm – and the oncologist and surgeon both have indicated that
the likely offending agent(s) are the hormones… We are prepared to support the
patient in any way we can (e.g. top surgery when medically stable, etc),” one doctor reportedly stated.
“I have one transition friend/collegue [sic] who, after about 8-10 years of [testosterone] developped [sic] hepatocarcinoma. To the best of my knowledge, it was linked to his hormone treatment… it was so advanced that he opted for palliative care and died a couple of months later.”
Other exchanges cited in the report show discussions of patients experiencing severe adverse side effects as a result of hormone treatments and sex change surgeries, including “persistent yellow discharge,” “pelvic floor dysfunction, and even pain with orgasm,” “bleeding after penetrative sex,” and “[erections] feeling like broken glass.”
“The WPATH Files show that what is called ‘gender medicine’ is neither science nor medicine,” said journalist Michael Shellenberger, President and founder of Environmental Progress. “The experiments are not randomized, double-blind, or controlled. It’s not medicine since the first rule is to do no harm. And that requires informed consent.”
As a result of their revelations, Environmental Progress is calling for “reputable medical
organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the American Medical Association (AMA) to cut ties with
the organization and to abandon its guidelines in favor of ethical, evidence-based medicine.”
Well, well, well. Always nice getting BOTH sides of the story….
It is child abuse. These docs should be sanctioned and potentially arrested.
You cannot change the gender your born with. This whole thing is a mental health issue. People who go through with this need to see s psychiatrist, not a doctor who will cut off body parts.
This article brings to mind the lady who during her testimony the other day in Augusts adamantly insisted two different times that (essentially) gender affirming care does not involve genital mutilation. There was a stir of disbelief among the spectators in the room.
The advocates are the ones that are crazy and all sane minds know it.