An insider of a major US health system is speaking out about transgender youths who take hormonal medications for chemical sex changes and have significant mental health issues. Do No Harm, which promotes science-based medicine, heard the source's concerns.
The insider is an employee at MaineHealth, one of the largest systems in the state, and has access to patient care information, including that of adolescents.
Some Hormone Patients Suffer Mental Illness
When mental health crises reach critical levels, patients are brought to the emergency department for immediate stabilization.
Threats of violence, hearing voices, self-injury, and suicide attempts are among the most common reasons people seek treatment in an emergency department due to mental health issues.
Transgender people who follow the "affirming" approach to treatment go to special clinics where they are given cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers. Proponents of affirming care see these medications as "life-saving."
Suicide attempts are disproportionately common among transgender people, a fact that proponents of gender reassignment point to as the reason for the stigma they face.
According to Fox News, the insider said that some of these hormone patients have major mental problems, such as cutting and breaks with reality, when they take these medications. The source said they knew that children, mostly females aged 13 and up, from "affirming" homes were visiting emergency rooms.
However, employees think the affirming model is harsh because it prescribes hormones and puberty blockers to those already receiving several psychotropic medicines to deal with serious mental health difficulties, even though these medications have been linked to an increased risk of sadness and anxiety. If someone is already having a hard time, why would you make things worse for them?
Even if an employee has worries about hormones for patients, MaineHealth's diversity, equality, and inclusion culture makes employees cautious about how they talk about the matter with patients and colleagues, the source said.
The source reportedly said that families should always feel free to seek a second opinion. Additionally, the insider thinks it is not "respectful" to speak out against pharmaceutical sex changes.
Affect on Health Decision-Making
Though European nations like Sweden, the UK, and Finland have distanced themselves from the affirming model's usage in minors, it is considered a standard of care in the US.
There are concerns that people facing mental health crises may not be able to make rational health choices, such as whether or not to undergo a gender transition, under the affirming approach.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb of Do No Harm told Fox News, "One of the truly unfortunate concepts that [corrupt] so-called 'gender-affirming care' is the notion that the reason these young children are in such psychological distress find is because they have not had the opportunity to undergo gender transformation."
