Originally published July 10, 2023 12:00 pm PDT
In a controversial move, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has decided to financially back research into the effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatment in minors.
The grant recipient, the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), has openly admitted that these medical treatments can lead to sterility in young patients, The Daily Wire reports.
The consent form from CHLA, titled “Pubertal Blockers for Minors in Early Adolescence,” informs parents or guardians that if their child begins puberty blockers at the onset of puberty and subsequently takes gender-related hormones, the child won’t be able to produce sperm or eggs, effectively forfeiting their ability to have biological offspring.
The document continues to explain, “This is an important aspect of blocking puberty and progressing to hormones that you should understand prior to moving forward with puberty suppression.”
However, it does note that fertility can be preserved if puberty blockers are used without additional cross-sex hormone therapy.
Yet studies have shown that almost 98% of children who commence puberty blockers eventually proceed with cross-sex hormone treatment, Daily Wire notes.
Both the guardian and the child must provide their signatures on the consent form to proceed with the pubertal blocker medication.
Critics, such as Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Director of the advocacy group Do No Harm, argue against the idea that a minor can make such a significant decision about their reproductive future.
He told The Daily Wire, “Anyone who thinks a child reading this document will be able to give informed consent is engaging in a massive instance of self delusion. Children simply cannot understand the impact of any of this on their bodies, and on their future.”
CHLA’s consent form aligns with a similar document from the University of Virginia Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital Transgender Youth Health, which also lists “irreversible infertility” as a potential outcome of cross-sex hormone therapy.
“Polling has consistently found that a majority of Americans oppose these procedures. For the federal government to fund this research with tax dollars, despite such widespread opposition, is truly insult to injury,” noted Nicki Neily, founder and president of Parents Defending Education, a nonprofit working to counteract harmful agendas in schools.
NIH has invested in a CHLA research project, named “The Impact of Early Medical Treatment in Transgender Youth,” headed by Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the Medical Director for The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at CHLA.
This project, initiated in 2015, investigates the physiological and psychological effects of medical interventions for transgender and gender-diverse youth.
Despite highlighting positive preliminary results, the study reported that two participants had committed suicide and another 11 had suicidal thoughts.
In light of these deaths, Republican Congress members sent a letter to NIH Acting Director Lawrence Tabak, expressing their “grave concerns” about the study.
They pointed out that the researchers could not conclusively determine a causal relationship between the use of cross-sex hormones and improved mental health due to the absence of a control group in the study.
The NIH has further allocated over $3.2 million to Boston Children’s Hospital for the creation of a “trans health guide” with the goal of enhancing access to sex changes for minors.
Despite the criticism, neither CHLA nor NIH has commented on the matter.
