- Joined
- Nov 5, 2010
- Messages
- 40,932
https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1764799914918490287
to: https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1764812849984295270
[archive @ Thread Reader: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1764799914918490287.html]
{Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger | 04 March 2024}
[most images hidden to save space - OB]
[tweets with videos are embedded at the end of this post and have been hidden to save space - OB]
THE WPATH FILES
Advocates of gender-affirming care say it’s evidence-based.
But now, newly released internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) prove that the practice of transgender medicine is neither scientific nor medical.
American Medical Association, The Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and thousands of doctors worldwide rely on WPATH. It is considered the leading global authority on gender medicine.
And yet WPATH’s internal files, which include written discussions and a video, reveal that its members know they are creating victims and not getting “informed consent.”
Victims include a 10-year-old girl, a 13-year-old developmentally delayed adolescent, and individuals suffering from schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses.
The injuries described in the WPATH Files include sterilization, loss of sexual function, liver tumors, and death.
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. And yet, they continue to perform and advocate for gender medicine.
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.
Why I Am Publishing WPATH Files And How I Got Them
The written WPATH Files come from WPATH’s member discussion forum, which runs on software provided by DocMatter.
Ninety seconds of the 82-minute video was made public last year. We are making the full video available for the first time.
One or more people gave me the WPATH Files, and my colleagues and I attempted to summarize them as a series of articles. We quickly realized the topic was too sensitive, complex, and large to be dealt with as a work of journalism, and we moved the project to the research institute I founded seven years ago, Environmental Progress (EP).
The Files are authentic. We redacted most names and left only those individuals who are leading gender medicine practitioners to whom we sent “right-of-reply” emails. We know WPATH members discussed our emails internally. No WPATH leader or member has denied that the Files are anything other than what they appear to be.
EP is publishing a 70-page report to provide context for the 170 pages of WPATH Files. Mia Hughes is the author of the report. It and accompanying summary materials can be downloaded at the link below. That link also provides a link to the full WPATH video.
What follows are simply a few highlights. People with a serious interest in the topic should read the report and all the files:
[see VIDEO #1 at end of post]
Part I: Children and Adolescents
“We're explaining things to people who haven't even had biology in high school…”
“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,” says Dan Metzger, an endocrinologist.
“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.”
[see VIDEO #2 at end of post]
“14 year old trans female who started transition since she was 4… wants to have Gender Affirming Surgery” [image]
“I’ve recently received questions from an [‘Assigned Female At Birth’] pre-menarche 10 y/o patient about whether blockers will ‘stunt’ his growth…” [image]
“It is very difficult to ask that they wait until age 16...” [image]
A “16 y/o patient…found to have two liver masses… the likely offending agents were the hormones…”
The problem is that drugs can cause tumors, even, apparently, in people as young as 16 years old. [image]
“To what degree… providers discuss actual rates of surgical complications… (e.g., pain…additional surgeries, necrotic tissue, infection, hematomas…”
Many young patients experiencing gender distress do not appear to understand that they may suffer serious consequences from long-term hormone use and genital surgery. [image]
“I feel the best time for surgery in the U.S. is the summer before their last year of high school.”
Despite the widespread and growing expression of concern within the WPATH Files over the negative side effects of gender medicine, WPATH members urge that irreversible surgeries take place when adolescents are just 16 or 17 years old. [images]
“Most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of brain space to really talk about it seriously.”
One WPATH member says, “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.”
[see VIDEO #3 at end of post]
Many Parents Don’t Understand What Will Happen To Their Children
“I try to kind of do whatever I can to help them understand best they, best I can,” says a therapist. “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."
[see VIDEO #4 at end of post]
“In a developmentally delayed 13yo… what is the ethical approach?”
The situation of obtaining informed consent is complicated further when the adolescents are also developmentally delayed and, in the case below, “may not reach the emotional and cognitive developmental bar set” by WPATH’s already very low standards of care. [image]
“Oh, the dog isn’t doing it for you?”
Many gender medicine victims are filled with regret that they were sterilized. Nobody knows this more than the doctors who mistreated them. At times, their response to such regret appears callous.
“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.”
[see VIDEO #5 at end of post]
“I’m unaware of an individual claiming ability to orgasm when they were blocked at Tanner 2.”
Many gender medicine patients lose sexual function, including experiencing orgasm. As such, they are not only deprived of sexual pleasure, they are significantly undermining their ability to form long-lasting romantic relationships.
It’s clear from the Files that even many people within gender medicine do not understand this.
On January 14, 2022, the surgeon and President of WPATH, Marci Bowers, explained this reality in a low-key way. [images]
Seven days later, a WPATH member asked Bowers to clarify. [image]
“After 8-10 years of [testosterone, they] developed hepatocarcinomas… died a couple of months after.”
For some gender medicine patients, there are fates worse than both sterility and loss of sexual function. [image]
[... continued with Part II in next post ...]
TWEETS WITH VIDEOS [hidden to save space]
to: https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1764812849984295270
[archive @ Thread Reader: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1764799914918490287.html]
{Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger | 04 March 2024}
[most images hidden to save space - OB]
[tweets with videos are embedded at the end of this post and have been hidden to save space - OB]
THE WPATH FILES
Advocates of gender-affirming care say it’s evidence-based.
But now, newly released internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) prove that the practice of transgender medicine is neither scientific nor medical.
American Medical Association, The Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and thousands of doctors worldwide rely on WPATH. It is considered the leading global authority on gender medicine.
And yet WPATH’s internal files, which include written discussions and a video, reveal that its members know they are creating victims and not getting “informed consent.”
Victims include a 10-year-old girl, a 13-year-old developmentally delayed adolescent, and individuals suffering from schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses.
The injuries described in the WPATH Files include sterilization, loss of sexual function, liver tumors, and death.
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. And yet, they continue to perform and advocate for gender medicine.
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.
Why I Am Publishing WPATH Files And How I Got Them
The written WPATH Files come from WPATH’s member discussion forum, which runs on software provided by DocMatter.
Ninety seconds of the 82-minute video was made public last year. We are making the full video available for the first time.
One or more people gave me the WPATH Files, and my colleagues and I attempted to summarize them as a series of articles. We quickly realized the topic was too sensitive, complex, and large to be dealt with as a work of journalism, and we moved the project to the research institute I founded seven years ago, Environmental Progress (EP).
The Files are authentic. We redacted most names and left only those individuals who are leading gender medicine practitioners to whom we sent “right-of-reply” emails. We know WPATH members discussed our emails internally. No WPATH leader or member has denied that the Files are anything other than what they appear to be.
EP is publishing a 70-page report to provide context for the 170 pages of WPATH Files. Mia Hughes is the author of the report. It and accompanying summary materials can be downloaded at the link below. That link also provides a link to the full WPATH video.
What follows are simply a few highlights. People with a serious interest in the topic should read the report and all the files:
[see VIDEO #1 at end of post]
Part I: Children and Adolescents
“We're explaining things to people who haven't even had biology in high school…”
“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,” says Dan Metzger, an endocrinologist.
“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.”
[see VIDEO #2 at end of post]
“14 year old trans female who started transition since she was 4… wants to have Gender Affirming Surgery” [image]
The problem is that drugs can cause tumors, even, apparently, in people as young as 16 years old. [image]
Many young patients experiencing gender distress do not appear to understand that they may suffer serious consequences from long-term hormone use and genital surgery. [image]
Despite the widespread and growing expression of concern within the WPATH Files over the negative side effects of gender medicine, WPATH members urge that irreversible surgeries take place when adolescents are just 16 or 17 years old. [images]
One WPATH member says, “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.”
[see VIDEO #3 at end of post]
Many Parents Don’t Understand What Will Happen To Their Children
“I try to kind of do whatever I can to help them understand best they, best I can,” says a therapist. “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."
[see VIDEO #4 at end of post]
“In a developmentally delayed 13yo… what is the ethical approach?”
The situation of obtaining informed consent is complicated further when the adolescents are also developmentally delayed and, in the case below, “may not reach the emotional and cognitive developmental bar set” by WPATH’s already very low standards of care. [image]
Many gender medicine victims are filled with regret that they were sterilized. Nobody knows this more than the doctors who mistreated them. At times, their response to such regret appears callous.
“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.”
[see VIDEO #5 at end of post]
“I’m unaware of an individual claiming ability to orgasm when they were blocked at Tanner 2.”
Many gender medicine patients lose sexual function, including experiencing orgasm. As such, they are not only deprived of sexual pleasure, they are significantly undermining their ability to form long-lasting romantic relationships.
It’s clear from the Files that even many people within gender medicine do not understand this.
On January 14, 2022, the surgeon and President of WPATH, Marci Bowers, explained this reality in a low-key way. [images]
For some gender medicine patients, there are fates worse than both sterility and loss of sexual function. [image]
TWEETS WITH VIDEOS [hidden to save space]
- VIDEO #1 / VIDEO #2
Last edited:
