New NHS Report Will Prevent Trans Teens From Receiving Necessary Care

Yesterday, a wide range of media outlets reported on the release of an NHS review of gender dysphoria treatment among children and adolescents. The Guardian, for example, reported that Dr. Hilary Cass, who led the research team behind the report, “said that gender medicine is ‘built on shaky foundations.’” Succinctly, they contend that most of the research into gender medicine is “low quality,” and that such treatment conducted by the NHS should be limited to clinical trials (a practice that England already began in March).

I agree medical treatment and clinical guidelines should backed by strong evidence. Some of the issues outlined in the report -- particularly around the potential for puberty blockers to have deleterious side effects on bone health for transgender boys -- should be further examined and remedied in short order for the benefit of patients everywhere.

However, I am concerned this review -- and more specifically, the media’s reporting of it -- will have a chilling impact on patients’ access to necessary treatments that provide more benefit than harm. Generally speaking, "low-quality" research does not mean it is faulty, per se, just that more research is required to confirm early results. The solution to this issue is, of course, to conduct higher quality research. Yes, there is value in admitting that more research is needed, but the goal should be to boost funding and interest in this area of medicine, not call the field into question.

And that is exactly what ideological opponents of transgender healthcare across the globe will do. They will point to this report for years, if not decades, to support their hateful positions. They will gleefully twist its conclusions to say there is no evidence whatsoever supporting gender dysphoria as a real medical condition. This gives them ammunition to further dehumanize trans people -- as if they need more. Perhaps instead of releasing a highly-publicized report that is easily sensationalized by the media, we should simply allocate more funding to the study of transgender medicine.