CV NEWS FEED // The world’s largest independent review published a report concluding there is “no good evidence” on the long-term outcomes of puberty blockers and other gender-related treatments, and that current treatments for gender dysphoria are “built on shaky foundations.”
Dr. Hilary Cass, Chair of the Independent Review, published on April 10 a report on puberty blockers, submitting the findings to National Health Service England.
“The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress,” wrote Cass in the nearly 400-page report.
In an op-ed published shortly after the report, Cass wrote that the current treatments and standards in gender medicine are “built on shaky foundations.”
“The rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear, with weak evidence regarding the impact on gender dysphoria and mental or psychosocial health,” wrote Cass. “The effect on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown.”
Last month, CatholicVote reported on leaked files from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health that exposed “widespread medical malpractice on children and vulnerable adults.”
The contents of the WPATH Files revealed that the leading global “authority” on “transgender healthcare” has disregarded medical ethics and ignored “the detrimental long-term effects of the hormone therapies and surgical interventions they recommend for children,” CatholicVote previously reported.
Doctors across the globe have previously looked to WPATH for guidance on caring for persons suffering gender dysphoria. After the WPATH Files leaked, medical professionals began denouncing the organization’s actions.
Non-profit organization Alliance Defending Freedom issued a news release on the Cass Report, noting that its findings are consistent with the contents of the WPATH Files.
“The review establishes that there is weak evidence regarding the impact of puberty blockers on gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health,” ADF International stated. “Indeed, the report reveals that rather than merely allowing children ‘time to think’ by delaying the onset of puberty, the vast majority of those treated with puberty blockers continued on a journey to cross-sex hormones.”
The report also found that puberty blockers may temporarily or even permanently disrupt brain maturation, ADF International highlighted, noting that the medicines’ effects on mental health have worsened some patients’ depression or anxiety.
Cass’ findings also highlight that gender medical interventions, though experimental, are not subject to “the scrutiny that would normally be applied in other medical contexts,” ADF International pointed out.
“The adoption of a treatment with uncertain benefits without further scrutiny is a significant departure from established practice,” wrote Cass in the report. “This, in combination with the long delay in publication of the results of the study, has had significant consequences in terms of patient expectations of intended benefits and demand for treatment.”
J.K. Rowling, the noted U.K.-based author, wrote in a thread on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Over the last four years, Hilary Cass has conducted the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that’s ever been conducted. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down.”
Rowling, who has been publicly attacked as “transphobic” for her opposition to using puberty blockers on children, also said: “I understand that the review’s conclusions will have come as a seismic shock to those who’ve hounded and demonized whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes, but trying to discredit Hilary Cass’s work isn’t merely misguided. It’s actively malign.”
Rowling wrote that the report’s findings and the consequences of the scandal of irreversible gender transition surgery will continue to play out for decades.
“Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain,” Rowling wrote. “Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.”
