While the study provides no information about pediatric outcomes, it oversells findings within adult patients. Among the 235 patients eligible for the study, only 59.1 percent participated in surveys. It’s entirely possible that the sentiments of those who elected to respond are very different from those who did not, a phenomenon known as nonresponse bias. The study also provides no information about why individuals were lost to follow-up. This fact raises the possibility—one that manifested in a New England Journal of Medicine study earlier this year—that suicides are treated as missing data.
Despite these obvious shortcomings, CNN not only relayed but exaggerated the study’s findings and presented them without their full context. It also incorrectly stated that “Most US medical centers follow guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health,” which requires that patients “have to be the age of majority and have significant medical or mental health concerns that are reasonably well-controlled at the time of surgery.” In fact, WPATH sets no minimum age for mastectomies, and hundreds of sex-change mastectomies (euphemistically dubbed “top surgery”) are performed on adolescents every year, including on detransitioner and Do No Harm patient advocate Chloe Cole.
Americans are waking up to the ugly truth about gender ideology and medicine. Unfortunately, there are still too many people determined to look the other way.
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