Originally published April 29, 2023 8:29 am PDT
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, associated with Oregon Health & Science University, provides consultations on transgender treatments for children under the age of 10, according to an exclusive report from The Daily Caller.
The hospital’s Gender Clinic offers consultations for patients up to 18 years old with puberty specialists and hormone therapy experts, in addition to a “gender-affirming environment.”
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital follows the guidelines recommended by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) for transgender-identified youth.
WPATH, a prominent advocate for child sex changes, recently called for the removal of minimum age requirements for sex change surgeries or cross-sex hormone therapy.
In 2022, WPATH established care standards for individuals with a “eunuch” gender identity, suggesting orchiectomy, the removal of testicles, as a treatment option.
The hospital’s website states, “Medical treatment usually doesn’t begin until puberty. This is commonly age 10 or 11. We are happy to meet with you and your child before that, though.”
The hospital may advise sex change surgeries for teenagers “before leaving for college.”
It also promotes the use of puberty blockers to give “adolescents time to explore their gender.”
A hospital handout on puberty blockers claims, “Puberty blockers do not cause permanent changes to the body,” despite evidence indicating long-term side effects of pubertal suppression.
The handout continues, “If you decide to stop taking puberty blockers and did not take hormone therapy, your body will go back to the puberty that had already started.”
The hospital also acknowledges that interventions such as puberty blockers may result in patient infertility and suggests alternatives, including freezing sperm or eggs, and in vitro fertilization.
However, puberty blockers, which are often presented as a safe way to delay puberty in gender-questioning minors, have numerous long-term side effects, Daily Caller notes.
