I ran across this and my jaw dropped.

Six Mayo Clinic doctors published a paper describing their treatment of a breastfeeding mother with gender dysphoria. They initiated testosterone treatment on the woman during the time she was still providing nutrition to her child, monitoring the effects of the treatment on both mother and infant.

When I first saw the paper I assumed it was an experiment done in some far off land where human beings could be used as experimental subjects without ethical limits.

But no, it was at the very same Mayo Clinic where I had some work done on my heart years ago. Apparently they hired Josef Mengele in the intervening years.

What on Earth were they thinking?

Let’s take a look at the paper to get an idea of just how screwed up this is.

Introduction: Transgender and gender diverse individuals may choose to provide their infants with human milk. Lactating transgender men may experience gender dysphoria and desire to initiate or reinitiate gender-affirming testosterone therapy. However, there is limited safety data regarding use of testosterone during lactation.

Main issue: A 30-year-old G2P2 transgender man with gender dysphoria sought to initiate gender-affirming testosterone therapy while lactating.

Just to clarify: G2P2 simply means that she has had 2 successful pregnancies with babies delivered. This “transgendered man” is the mother of 2 children, one of whom is still breastfeeding. Her status as and desire to “transition” is new enough that she had two babies and any treatment is just starting now. This is new, not ongoing gender care.

Fresh meat for the grinder!

Think about that. No matter what you think of “transitioning,” couldn’t you wait until your child is weaned? Wouldn’t a doctor insist on it?

Nope. Gotta see what happens if you try this!

Management: Subcutaneous testosterone was self-administered beginning at 13 months post-partum. We prospectively collected data on circulating testosterone concentrations in parent serum, milk, and infant serum over 5 months until the infant self-weaned. The infant was monitored for growth and development at routine pediatric outpatient appointments. Parent serum testosterone concentrations rose with the initiation of testosterone therapy, reaching therapeutic concentrations by Day 14. Milk testosterone concentrations also increased with a maximum concentration of 35.9 ng/dl when the lactating parent was on a dose of 80 mg subcutaneous testosterone cypionate weekly. The calculated milk/plasma ratio remained under 1.0 and the calculated relative infant dose remained under 1%. The infant had no observable side effects, and his serum testosterone concentrations remained undetectable throughout the study period.

Conclusion: This is the first study with data regarding human milk and infant serum testosterone concentrations during the initiation of gender-affirming testosterone therapy in a lactating individual. This evidence can help families and clinicians with decisions regarding lactation and testosterone use.

Rather than waiting the 5 months until self weaning or switching to formula–which at 13 months would be an easy switch–both the mother and the doctors decided to run an experiment on the baby to see what happens. They gave the mother hormones and monitored the child to see whether horns sprouted or puberty began.

Nice.

According to the paper nothing bad happened, but it’s pretty hard to know from a simple observational study done over a few months. There are so many variables and an entire lifetime of potential consequences that this few months of observation would never capture. You may notice that if you read carefully the “study period” is over.

It is mind-blowing to me that any doctor, no less 6 at a world-class medical center could consider doing this sort of experiment. And for what, exactly? During COVID cancer patients were forced to wait for life saving operations and chemotherapy, but a “gender dysphoric” mother breastfeeding her child couldn’t either wait a few months or switch to formula to get her testosterone shots?

Of course she could, but the opportunity to experiment on an infant would be lost forever.

She may be mentally ill, but what excuses do the doctors have?

I will be looking into how to file ethics charges against these doctors. If this sort of thing doesn’t violate ethical standards then I can’t imagine what would.

Anybody have any suggestions for how to proceed? I am serious. This is really screwed up.