Doctors ‘in hiding’ criticize Rachel Levine’s claim that everyone agrees on ‘gender-affirming care.’

Multiple physicians and therapists reacted angrily to Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine’s recent statement that “there is no debate” concerning gender-affirming therapy among pediatric and adolescent medical experts.
Several medical experts told Fox News that while incidences of gender dysphoria among young people have skyrocketed in recent years, many of their colleagues are hesitant to come out openly against transgender ism for fear of career and personal punishment.

The Florida Department of Health, among others, objected to Levine’s broad assertion. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issued a fact brief on April 20 warning against the HHS’s list of treatment options, citing peer-reviewed research as well as a “lack of clear evidence and the risk for long-term, irreversible damage.”

Levine, the highest-ranking transgender person in the United States government, made headlines last month when she told NPR that “there is no debate among medical professionals – pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. – about the value and importance of gender-affirming care.”

According to Levine’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) standards, “gender-affirming treatment” encompasses social affirmation at any age, puberty blockers during puberty, and cross-sex hormone therapy beginning in early adolescence. According to the organization, irreversible surgery is “usually utilized in maturity or on a case-by-case basis in adolescence.”

According to Ladapo’s office, he feels Florida’s advice and fact sheet speak for themselves and that “the burden of proof to substantiate the outrageous accusations made on NPR is on Dr. Levine.”

When contacted for a response, Levine’s office reiterated the assistant secretary’s accusations. “There is no argument in the medical world about the medical or scientific legitimacy of gender-affirming therapy,” said Adam Sarvana, Levine’s communications director.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standards of care, according to Sarvana, have been endorsed by a number of medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).

Dr. William Malone, an assistant clinical professor of endocrinology at the University of Idaho, is a member of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), an international group of more than 100 clinicians and researchers concerned about the “lack of quality evidence for the use of hormonal and surgical interventions as first-line treatment for young people with gender dysphoria.”

On April 7, SEGM issued a lengthy rebuttal to the HHS’s March guidance, claiming that the department failed to adequately review available literature and also made biased recommendations without considering the low quality of evidence, diversity of clinician viewpoints, or possible alternative treatments.

Amitay noted how current Canadian legislation, such as Bill C-4, which forbids conversion therapy, has hampered his own practice.

“I’ll tell you that in this day and age, I’m less inclined to ask certain questions that I would have asked in the past because I’m concerned that it will be mischaracterized as conversion therapy,” said Amitay, who explained that his approach with clients who struggle with such issues is exploratory and not intended to push them toward any particular outcome.

Conversion therapy, as defined in Canada, is any technique aimed at “changing a person’s gender identification to cisgender” or “repressing or reducing a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.” Even consenting individuals who desire to get such therapy are barred from receiving it.

Therapists who violate Bill C-4, which became law in January, face up to five years in jail. Similar restrictions on conversion treatment have emerged in a number of states, towns, and municipalities across the United States.