The Endocrine Society, the world’s oldest and largest professional medical society dedicated to the study and treatment of hormone-related conditions, applauds Gov. Mike Dewine’s veto of a proposed Ohio law that would ban gender-affirming care for minors. The vetoed bill contradicts mainstream medical practice and scientific evidence and would have taken medical decision-making out of the hands of families and their doctors and instead relied on government officials.
More than 2,000 scientific studies have examined aspects of gender-affirming care since 1975, including more than 260 studies cited in the Endocrine Society’s Clinical Practice Guideline.
Major medical and scientific organizations such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics align with the Endocrine Society on the importance of gender-affirming care.
In June, the Endocrine Society worked with other medical societies in the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates to pass a resolution with overwhelming support to protect access to evidence-based gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-nonconforming people . In the resolution, the AMA pledged to oppose any criminal and legal sanctions against patients who seek gender-affirming care, family members or guardians who support them in seeking medical care, and health care facilities and clinicians who provide gender-affirming care .
Gender-affirming pediatric care is designed to take a conservative approach. When young children feel that their gender identity does not match the gender recorded at birth, the first course of action is to support the child in exploring their gender identity and provide mental health support as needed.
Medical intervention is intended for older adolescents and adults, with treatment plans tailored to the individual and designed to maximize the time adolescents and their families have to make decisions about their transitions.
As Governor DeWine noted, only a small number of Ohio children would be affected by the proposed legislation, but it would have profound, even life-threatening, consequences for those affected by gender dysphoria. About 300,000 teens ages 13-17 in the United States, or 1.4 percent of the population, identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute. An estimated 4,780 teens diagnosed with gender dysphoria started puberty-delaying medication between 2017 and 2021, according to an analysis by Komodo Health Inc for Reuters.
Gender-affirming care can be lifesaving for a population with high suicide rates. For example, a 2020 study analyzed survey data from 89 transgender adults who had access to drugs to delay puberty, while teens and data from more than 3,400 transgender adults who did not. The study found that those who received puberty-delaying hormone treatment had a lower lifetime likelihood of suicidal ideation than those who wanted puberty-delaying treatment but did not receive it, even after adjusting for demographic variables and level of family support. About nine in ten transgender adults who wanted treatment for delayed puberty but did not receive it reported lifetime suicidal ideation.
Medical decisions should be made by patients, their relatives and healthcare providers, not by politicians.
