Taxpayer-funded gender clinic falsely claims procedures are reversible
A taxpayer-funded gender clinic for children operated by the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine is falsely claiming that its procedures are reversible.
“Puberty blockers are not permanent. When they are stopped, puberty continues normally,” the Gender Equity and Transgender Clinic’s website says.
Puberty blockers
Puberty is a natural remedy for gender dysphoria. As much as 98% of children experiencing gender confusion will naturally outgrow it once they pass through puberty. Puberty blockers, known medically as gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs (GnRHa), are designed to halt that natural development. They prevent the maturation process that resolves the confusion. In effect, they trap the child in that distress, making them a permanent patient.
Delaying puberty for more than two years causes irreversible damage to a child’s fertility. The current protocol calls for blockers to be administered at Tanner Stage 2, which is when physical changes first begin to appear.
Cross-sex hormones
The clinic also claims that cross-sex hormones cause “changes in the body that would reverse upon stopping the treatment.”
Nearly 100% of these children on blockers proceed to cross-sex hormones. This means they never develop mature gametes. They miss the brief biological window in which their bodies can develop properly in order to release viable eggs or sperm throughout their lives (till menopause for women). The combination of blockers followed by cross-sex hormones sterilizes them—permanently.
“Puberty doesn’t just continue normally,” Do No Harm Senior Fellow Dr. Jared Ross said about the clinic’s “absurd” claim. “There are only so many years of pubertal development. And if you interfere with puberty during that time, you don’t get to make it up later. Those are lost years of growth and development.”
Dr. Ross told The Daily Wire that this is simply not the case. Estrogen, for example, causes fat distribution in males that cannot be reversed, and testosterone causes permanent voice changes in females.
Despite President Trump’s executive order restricting federal funding from institutions that medically mutilate children, the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has already been granted $1.2 million from the National Institutes of Health and $2.5 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Last year, it raked in $6.4 million.
FTC cracking down on deceptive claims
Claims about medical mutilation procedures being “reversible” have caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission, which has taken steps to crack down on institutions that make such fraudulent assertions. Last week, the FTC held its first workshop on the issue, titled “The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care,” where FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson heard from doctors, academics, parents, and “detransitioners”—youth who were subjected to medical mutilation procedures and have begun the long journey back to health.
“Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, the FTC is provided broad authority to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive trade acts and practices,” an internal FTC memo said. “There is now considerable reason to believe that the doctors and medical providers pushing [gender-affirming care] on minors are knowingly deceiving parents by exaggerating [its] ‘benefits’ and downplaying its harmful side effects.”
