CMA Calls For a Return to Evidence-Based Medicine to Treat Gender Dysphoria
March 11, 2024
Over the past several years, the increasing frequency of “gender transition” in young and vulnerable individuals has raised many questions and concerns about the safety and ethics of these interventions. Sadly, new information from the leading promoter of these methods reveals clear evidence of ideology over science. The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) of the USA has long held a position of concern about the harms of gender transition, particularly involving children and adolescents. With the release of this information, these concerns have again been confirmed.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has been at the forefront of gender transition for many years. Recently, files have become available from WPATH that demonstrate a blatant lack of regard for evidence-based medical assessment and interventions. These documents have been reviewed and published by Environmental Progress, and reveal physicians affiliated with WPATH continued promoting gender transition on children despite being fully aware of the experimental nature of these methods and the increasing evidence of harm incurred by their young patients. These documents show that commitment to principled ethics of medical care and informed consent are glaringly absent.
According to CMA President Dr. Michelle Stanford, “The recent leak of the WPATH files confirms what we already know, namely, the gender transition industry uses poorly researched methods to exploit vulnerable individuals. The Catholic Medical Association urges those in the scientific and medical communities being led by ideology to return to evidence-based medicine and the commitment to ‘do no harm.’”
Dr. Tim Millea, chair of CMA’s Health Care Policy Committee, adds, “Medical organizations that have supported WPATH’s guidelines, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and The Endocrine Society, must publicly reject and renounce their positions. Children with gender dysphoria and their families will continue to be irreversibly harmed until they do.”
As it has for nearly a century, CMA will stand for medicine that is morally and ethically sound, based on scientific data that ensures the vow to “do no harm” is
