HHS Report Confirms Sex-Change Procedures Harm Children

On November 19, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a peer-reviewed report confirming what most Americans already knew: Sex-change procedures are dangerous for children.

The report reviewed evidence and best practices for treating children and adolescents with gender dysphoria.

The HHS report found that performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones carries risk of “significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.”

The report also noted that pro-LGBT groups actually manufactured much of the so-called “medical consensus” in favor of these sex-change procedures, writing:

U.S. medical associations played a key role in creating a perception that there is professional consensus in support of pediatric medical transition. This apparent consensus, however, is driven primarily by a small number of specialized committees, influenced by WPATH. It is not clear that the official views of these associations are shared by the wider medical community, or even by most of their members. There is evidence that some medical and mental health associations have suppressed dissent and stifled debate about this issue among their members.

This latest report adds to a growing body of evidence that shows sex-change procedures hurt children.

Public health experts and policymakers in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and other nations have found that science simply does not support giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.

Whistleblowers have come forward to testify about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without understanding the procedures’ risks, consequences, or alternatives. It is absolutely vital that Americans understand just how harmful these procedures are.

In January, President Trump issued an executive order prohibiting federal funding from being used for sex-change procedures on kids, and the federal government is soon expected to propose new rules that could help protect children from sex-change procedures nationwide.

Earlier this summer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a public inquiry into whether U.S. doctors and clinics may have deceived parents and children about the risks of these procedures. The U.S. Department of Justice also subpoenaed doctors and medical facilities involved in performing sex-change procedures on minors.

In September, the U.S. Department of Justice sent Congress the federal Victims of Chemical or Surgical Mutilation Act. The proposed federal law would generally prevent doctors, hospitals, and clinics from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

In 2021, lawmakers in Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This good law generally prohibits doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. The SAFE Act has been upheld in federal court and is protecting children in Arkansas right now.

This latest report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services further shows that lawmakers did the right thing by passing the SAFE Act nearly five years ago.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.