It’s been four months since the four-hundred page Cass Review was published which found “remarkably weak evidence” to support the use of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for children. Dr. Hilary Cass spent years reviewing 50 studies on puberty blockers and 53 studies on hormone treatments, commissioned by England’s National Health Service (NHS). Her report was the shot heard ‘round the world for those who profit from the gender industry and those who strive against it.
Only a few weeks earlier, the world’s largest gender-identity clinic, Tavistock, closed. As the dust clears from the foundational crumbling of gender medicine, many European countries and states in America have banned gender surgeries and hormone blockers for minors. And yet, even so, some tenacious doctors in America don’t want to let go of their vision for transforming children while making profits for the medical-industrial complex. They wish to cling to activism in the name of progress rather than peer-reviewed scientific evidence, even when it has become illegal to do so.
Earlier this summer WVU Medical School assistant professors Dr. Kacie Kidd and Dr. Lisa Costello were exposed for their quiet collusion with transgender activists of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) by investigative reporter, Megan Brock, of the Daily Caller.
WPATH’s “Standards of Care” for gender-confused youth were scrutinized in the Cass Review and found to be lacking in developmental rigor and transparency. Recently unsealed court documents revealing that WPATH eliminated minimum age requirements for “gender health care” including surgeries, has served to highlight WPATH’s political motivations. Their former credibility as a medical organization has been shattered in the absence of evidence-based guidelines.
As a board member of WPATH’s regional chapter, USPATH, Dr. Kacie Kidd was asked to comment via email by Brock but according to the article, there was no response. Dr. Lisa Costello and West Virginia University were also asked for a comment regarding the exposed emails outlining the collaboration between the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and WPATH to promote child sex changes, to “promote joint and/or aligned messaging” and combat state bans, but multiple requests went unanswered, Brock reported.
One can only speculate as to why two of the most politically active medical professionals in the state have not been approached by mainstream media to ask their opinion about the Cass Review or to defend their position of a partnership between the AAP and WPATH in the emails obtained by the Daily Caller. These same physicians have been given a warm reception when visiting the state capital in Charleston to lobby against bills that protect children from the harms of gender ideology or to encourage a controversial vaccine mandate.
During our WV Legislative session earlier this year, Dr. Kidd among hundreds of other activists including physicians, students, pharmacists and speech pathologists made headlines when they signed their name to a petition to oppose HB 5297. The bill would have eliminated the current exemption in West Virginia’s gender-affirming care ban that allows minors to receive puberty blockers and hormones. At the top of the petition is written:
“Up to two percent of adolescents in the United States identify as transgender, and in any given year a third of them may attempt suicide. Research has shown that transgender youth who access gender-affirming hormone therapy have 73 percent lower odds of considering suicide. Gender-affirming hormone therapy for transgender adolescents is evidence and guideline-based care recommended by every major medical organization. In many cases, this care can be life-saving. We encourage West Virginia delegates and senators to support transgender youth and oppose House Bill 5297.”
Except now, their basis for making these claims has deteriorated thanks in large part to the Cass Review. The “guideline-based care” mentioned above, in almost all cases, were derived from WPATH.
And the “recommended by every major medical organization” claim has been invalidated in the last month by the American Academy of Plastic Surgeons (AAPS), who disagree, saying:
“ [AAPS] has not endorsed any organization’s practice recommendations for the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria.”
And,
“…there is “considerable uncertainty as to the long-term efficacy for the use of chest and genital surgical interventions” and that “the existing evidence base is viewed as low quality/low certainty.” -as reported by Leor Sapir, fellow at the Manhattan Institute, A Consensus No Longer
Many questions remain in light of the unsealed court documents, exposed emails and lack of professional consensus. Has the Medical Director of WVU Children’s Gender & Sexual Development Clinic changed her beliefs and philosophy of care after studying the Cass Review? Will Dr. Kidd and Dr. Costello continue to work with WPATH to seek collaborative partnerships to work around West Virginia’s ban on “gender affirming care” ?
Will they now join thousands of their colleagues around the nation in signing the bold declaration made by the American College of Pediatricians which calls for an “immediate stop to the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex.” ?
Considering that WVU and Dr. Kidd are continuing their research on public school children on issues of gender-identity and sexual preferences, the families of children that Dr. Kidd and Dr. Costello purport to study and treat in the name of ‘gender medicine and research’ deserve truth and transparency.
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