The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a peer-reviewed report titled "Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices," examining the risks associated with medical interventions aimed at changing the biological sex of children.
Published through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the report states that procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations carry significant and long-term harms. The findings align with those from President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again Commission, which previously identified unnecessary procedures and long-term health risks like infertility as consequences of overmedicalizing children.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. commented on the findings: “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. They betrayed their oath to first do no harm, and their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. That is not medicine — it’s malpractice.”
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, said: “This report marks a turning point for American medicine. The evidence in it meticulously documents the risks the profession has imposed on vulnerable children. At the NIH, we are committed to ensuring that science, not ideology, guides America’s medical research.”
Assistant Secretary for Health Brian Christine, MD added: “What are we going to tell the young people who can’t have children because the medical profession stole that from them? Our report is an urgent wake up call to doctors and parents about the clear dangers of trying to turn girls into boys and vice-versa.”
Before submitting its findings for peer review, HHS commissioned what it describes as a comprehensive study covering scientific evidence and clinical practices related to treating gender dysphoria in children and adolescents. The authors included professionals from fields such as medicine, bioethics, psychology, and philosophy:
Evgenia Abbruzzese (Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine), Alex Byrne (PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Farr Curlin (MD, Duke University), Moti Gorin (PhD, MBE, Colorado State University), Kristopher Kaliebe (MD, DFAACAP, University of South Florida), Michael K. Laidlaw (MD), Kathleen McDeavitt (MD, Baylor College of Medicine), Leor Sapir (PhD, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research), Yuan Zhang (PhD, Evidence Bridge).
HHS invited both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society to provide evidence for this report; both organizations declined participation.
