Leaked internal communications show doctors who offer so-called “gender-affirming care” know that transgender hormones cause serious diseases, including cancer.
Author and journalist Michael Shellenberger released the internal documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which “is considered the leading global authority” on so-called “gender medicine,” despite being an LGBT activist group.
The “WPATH FILES” include emails and messages from an internal discussion forum by doctors, as well as statements from a video call of WPATH members. The files reveal that the doctors working for WPATH know that so-called “gender-affirming care” can cause severe mental and physical disease and that it is impossible for minors to give “informed consent” to it.
One member of WPATH described the fate of a gender-confused person who died of hepatocarcinomas, a form of liver cancer, after taking testosterone as part of a “gender transition” for years.
“[A]fter 8-10 years of [testosterone, the individual] developed hepatocarcinomas. To the best of my knowledge, it was linked to [the person’s] hormonal treatment [sic],” the anonymous person wrote in February 2022.
Another case study discussed by a doctor concerned a 16-year-old who developed a liver tumor (hepatic adenoma) after taking testosterone. These tumors are also associated with hormonal contraceptives containing estrogen. The doctor wrote that “both the oncologist and the surgeon have indicated that the likely offending agent(s) are the hormones and have recommended the treatment [sic] ceases at this time to allow for regression of the masses.”
Another serious side effect of hormones and mutilating surgeries is the (often permanent) loss of fertility. A doctor from WPATH gave a callous response when discussing the case of an individual who regretted being unable to conceive children after having gone through transgender “treatment” during a video conference:
“I follow a lot of kids into their mid twenties, I’m always like, ‘Oh, the dog isn’t doing it for you, right?’ They’re like, ‘No, I just found this wonderful partner and now we want kids.’ So you know, it doesn’t surprise me.”
Doctors admit minors are unable to consent
“WPATH members indicate repeatedly that they know that many children and their parents don’t understand the effects that puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries will have on their bodies,” Shellenberger wrote in his summary of the files. “And yet, they continue to perform and advocate for gender medicine.”
“I think the thing you have to remember about kids is that we’re often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven’t even had biology in high school yet,” endocrinologist Dan Metzger said during a video call.
“The 14-year-olds, you just… It’s like talking [about] diabetic complications with a 14-year-old. They don’t care. They’re not going to die. They’re going to live forever, right? So I think when we’re doing informed consent, that’s still a big lacuna,” he added.
Another WPATH member said, “It’s out of their developmental range sometimes to understand the extent to which some of these medical interventions are impacting them.”
“We try to talk about it, but most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of a brain space to really, really, really talk about it seriously,” she added.
A therapist expressed his concern over the fact that many parents do not fully understand what they are putting their children through either.
“I try to kind of do whatever I can to help them understand best they, best I can,” the therapist said. “But what really disturbs me is when the parents can’t tell me what they need to know about a medical intervention that apparently they signed off for.”
Despite these admissions that clients are unable to give “informed consent,” WPATH members repeatedly engaged in victim blaming, asserting that people who regret the irreversible procedures should have known what they signed up for.
“Patients need to own and take active responsibility for medical decisions, especially those that have potentially permanent effects,” “Marcie” Bowers, a transgender-identifying surgeon and the president of WPATH, wrote.
Children start to ‘transition’ at age four
The internal messages revealed that many individuals undergoing “gender transitions” are minors; some even started their “transition” as young as four. The justification for beginning “gender-affirming” drugs as early as possible was often based on the unfounded claim that not doing so would increase the risk of suicide.
“It is very difficult to ask that they wait until age 16 because by then they will be dealing with menstrual periods and complete breast development,” one doctor wrote. “Waiting appears to increase the rate of suicide attempts.”
To debunk the baseless claim, Shellenberger cited a recent study from Finland that “found no scientific evidence to support the claim that drugs and surgeries prevent suicide among people with gender dysphoria.”
One physician named Christine McGinn lamented that hospitals are increasingly banning transgender surgeries for adolescents under the age of 18 and that surgeons are unwilling to perform the procedures on minors due to “aggressive attacks from the [political] right.”
Mental illness brushed aside as an explanation for gender dysphoria
“Repeatedly throughout the WPATH Files, we see gender medicine practitioners waive away evidence that mental illnesses and psychiatric disorders have been misdiagnosed as gender dysphoria,” Shellenberger wrote.
“The WPATH Files are a picture of people single-mindedly committed to the hammer of gender medicine and thus seeing every patient who comes to them as a nail,” he continued.
“Something is off… I am wondering if they might have schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia,” one physician wrote about a patient.
“Trauma is common among trans [sic] clients. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find that several of my clients met criteria for dissociative disorders, primarily OSDD [other specified dissociative disorder],” another doctor stated.
Instead of reevaluating their methods and asking if these psychological disorders may be part of the underlying issue causing gender dysphoria, it appears that most WPATH doctors proceeded with the mutilating gender surgeries anyway.
“Someone can have schizophrenia and be ready for surgery,” one WPATH member wrote.
Dr. McGinn recalled that she has “operated on three DID [Dissociative Identity Disorder] patients.”
‘One of the worst medical scandals in history’
Robert Clarke, director of advocacy at the Christian legal firm ADF International, said that the WPATH documents reveal “widespread medical malpractice on children and vulnerable adults.”
“No child is ever born in the wrong body. Children depend on adults to guide and empower them to feel comfortable and confident in their own skin – not to push them down a dangerous and irreversible path of transition,” he stated.
“Around the globe, patients and doctors have been assured they are following ‘best practice’ through the ‘Standards of Care’ published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). The documents released today expose an organisation lacking consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and life-changing effects of cross-sex hormones and other ‘treatments’.”
Michael Shellenberger stressed that the experimental and “pseudoscientific” practices of “gender medicine” will not be remembered kindly.
“The WPATH Files prove that gender medicine is comprised of unregulated and pseudoscientific experiments on children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. It will go down as one of the worst medical scandals in history,” he concluded.