The Washington Post argued in a new editorial that the benefits of gender transition treatments for minors, such as puberty blockers, have not been scientifically proven.
“Treatment results that seem impressive in small groups often disappear when larger groups are studied,” the Washington Post editorial board wrote Sunday in an article titled: “Look to science, not the law, for real answers on youth gender medicine”.
The Post was responding to arguments before the Supreme Court over Tennessee's ban on puberty blockers in United States v. Skrmetti. Experts believe the Supreme Court's decision in the case could set a precedent that will shape treatment laws for transgender children across the country.
“That's why the Food and Drug Administration typically requires large randomized controlled trials of drugs: to ensure that encouraging initial results are not mere statistical noise,” the Post wrote.
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A trans rights activist in front of the Supreme Court. (Getty Images)
“The court's decision will have consequences in the 24 states with these restrictions, but it will not resolve the heart of the debate over pediatric gender medicine: whether, as the plaintiffs argued, the treatments can save lives or, as some global health authorities have determined , the evidence is too little to conclude that they are beneficial and the risks are not well understood,” the editorial board argued.
This year he told a story about a California doctor who admitted to not publishing a study that found that puberty blockers did not lead to improvements in mental health, for fear that the findings would be “weaponized” by transgender critics of the medical attention.
“Medical progress is impossible unless null or negative results are published as soon as positive ones,” the board wrote. “Failing to adequately evaluate these treatments gives Tennessee reason to be concerned about them, and legal room to restrict them. We have serious reservations when states make decisions about minors' health care, rather than leaving them in the hands of parents.” “But in the absence of clear data, and with the possibility of significant publication bias or researchers fudging their results, parents may not have adequate information.”
The Post also highlighted the debate over puberty blockers in Europe, with “[m]Multiple European health authorities” review the scientific evidence on the use of puberty blockers in minors and “conclude[ing] which was “very low certainty”, “non-existent” and “limited by methodological weaknesses”. “Last week, Britain banned the use of puberty blockers indefinitely over safety concerns.”
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“However, no matter how the court rules, the federal government should provide the missing evidence at the center of this dispute,” the Post editorial board wrote. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“However, no matter how the court rules, the federal government should provide the missing evidence at the center of this dispute,” the Post wrote. “Randomized trials would be best, although now more difficult to do, since children who are placed in a control group might drop out and seek blockers and hormones elsewhere. However, Congress should fund new research of the highest rigor possible, supervised by scientists who are not “Gender medicine professionals should establish timelines and specify the results to be studied in advance to avoid the risk of researchers choosing what to show to the public. “Children with gender dysphoria deserve clearer answers.”
United States v. Skrmetti focuses on a Tennessee law which prohibits gender transition treatments for minors in the state. The law, passed in March 2023, also targets health care providers in Tennessee who continue to provide gender transition treatments to transgender minors, exposing them to fines, lawsuits and other liabilities.
Fox News' Breanne Deppisch and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
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