The University of Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust (USHT) announced that drug-induced lactation for transgender “chestfeeding” is similar to a biological woman’s lactation.
USHT wrote in a letter that transgender individuals may take drugs to induce lactation “comparable to that produced following the birth of a baby,” according to a report from The Telegraph.
Transgender individuals may take hormones such as progestin and lactation drugs to bring about “chestfeeding.”
One leading lactation drug, Domperidone, also known as Motilum, may negatively affect a baby’s heart.
“Motilium may cause unwanted side effects affecting the heart in a breast-fed baby,” a warning reads. “Motilium should be used during breast feeding only if your physician considers this clearly necessary.”
To defend its claim that biological males may “chestfeed,” USHT cited a 2022 study finding that “milk testosterone concentrations” were under one percent with “no observable side effects” in infants. The study provided no long-term data.
Lottie Moore of the British think tank Policy Exchange said USHT is “unbalanced and naïve in its assertion that the secretions produced by a male on hormones can nourish an infant in the way a mother’s breast milk can.”
Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published “Health Equity Considerations” that endorses transgender individuals “chestfeeding” a baby despite obvious health risks.
One of the “reminders” in the considerations is that “transgender and nonbinary-gendered individuals may give birth and breastfeed or feed at the chest (chestfeed),” noting that “an individual does not need to have given birth to breastfeed or chestfeed.”
In 2022, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine issued a guide advising hospitals and health care professionals to use more “gender-inclusive” language.
Healthcare workers were asked to use the terms “human milk” or “parent’s milk,” and “father’s milk” as options in lieu of “breast milk” and “mother’s milk.”
