Major children’s hospital runs 'express' gender clinic for kids
Boston Children’s Hospital has been running an express gender clinic where children are evaluated for only two hours before being administered permanent “gender treatments,” according to former employees.
The allegation was revealed amid an ongoing lawsuit filed by Dr. Amy Tishelman, a child psychologist who worked at the gender clinic. According to The New York Sun, Tishelman testified Thursday that the children’s hospital has drastically reduced its evaluation time for “gender dysphoric” children.
Tishelman said that when she began working in the clinic in 2013, she was allotted 20 hours to assess a child for whether he or she should receive puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. By 2018, that number had been cut down to two, with another half-hour budgeted for writing the report.
“I didn’t feel like that was doable at all,” she said.
300 kids medically mutilated
Boston Children’s Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, launched its Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS) in 2007. Estimates say it has since performed “gender-affirming care,” or what some doctors call medical mutilation, to approximately 300 children. On its website, GeMS says it has “cared” for over 1,000 families.
Evidence shows that these “gender-affirming” procedures, such as cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, affect children in irreversible ways. Kids who undergo such interventions suffer permanent sterility, psychological damage, and an inability to experience sexual satisfaction throughout adulthood. Studies also point to a positive correlation between these procedures and suicide.
When Tishelman had 20 hours to assess children before recommending them for medical mutilation, she would use that time to determine the child’s suicidality, speak to the family about the risk of infertility, and more.
“There’s a lot of things to think about in the long- and short-run. It’s not like taking an aspirin. It’s a big deal,” she said.
‘Four hours was too much time’
Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper, who worked with Dr. Tishelman at GeMS, confirmed that psychological assessments are only allotted two hours. So did Dr. Jeremi Carswell, the director of GeMS, as did psychologist Dr. Kerry McGregor.
McGregor said she thinks the two-hour timeframe, which had been four hours in 2016, is “appropriate.”
“I think that four hours was too much time,” she said. “If you ever try and get an adolescent to pay attention to you for four hours straight, it’s a little bit difficult. And also we were able to get all the information in much less time. So, in order to see our growing patient population, it made sense to make that time more efficient.”
Notably, Dr. Tishelman is not suing the hospital for slashing the assessment time, but for unrelated claims of discrimination and retaliation.
