Watchdog calls on medical societies to end genital removal surgeries for minors
Medical watchdog Do No Harm sent a letter to the top 10 medical societies of America asking them to end all genital removal procedures on minors for gender transitions, stating there exists no evidence that such surgeries benefit children.
Do No Harm’s chief medical officer, Dr. Kurt Miceli, told The Center Square that “professional medical societies that endorse so-called gender-affirming care in minors bear tremendous responsibility for the harm done to American children in the name of gender ideology.”
“These societies shape professional standards through their policy directives, clinical guidelines, and public statements,” Miceli said. “In many cases they are viewed as the experts to whom providers, lawmakers, and the public defer judgment on the safety and efficacy of treatments.”
“We therefore call on professional medical societies to begin to right wrongs and explicitly oppose the performance of transgender genital surgeries on minors,” Miceli said.
Miceli told The Center Square that “no high-quality evidence demonstrates that these surgeries have beneficial outcomes in children. Medical societies must be clear and state their firm opposition to these unscientific and harmful procedures,” Miceli said.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Do No Harm asked that 10 of the most prominent medical societies to “publicly reject genital surgery on minors for the purpose of producing ‘gender transitions.’”
“While this process is uncommon, we believe that it should never occur,” the letter said, referring to genital surgeries.
“If your society continues to support the entire program of so-called gender-affirming care, it implicitly maintains that the cosmetic outcomes produced by hormones and mastectomies, for instance, confer some form of medical benefit,” the letter said.
The position that these transgender procedures are beneficial “is not supported by nearly two dozen systematic reviews that have been published in this field,” the letter noted.
Do No Harm sent its letter to the following societies according to a news release: the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Urological Association, the Endocrine Society, and the Pediatric Endocrine Society.
Last summer, Do No Harm released a report that it said debunked popular beliefs surrounding gender-affirming care for minors, such as that it improves quality of life and mental health or decreases risk of suicide, The Center Square reported.
Do No Harm also called for an end to gender-affirming care for minors at the same time.
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