Doctors and nurses at a Midwestern medical center that diagnoses children with gender dysphoria and prescribes experimental drugs and surgeries to make their healthy male or female bodies resemble those of the opposite sex in pursuit of a “transgender” identity may lose their medical licenses in the wake of a whistleblower’s damning testimony.
Jamie Reed, who describes herself as a “progressive” and says she is “married to a transman,” published a chilling account of her experiences at the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital on the news website The Free Press Thursday. Later that day, Attorney General Andrew Bailey, R-Mo., released Reed’s sworn testimony about the center.
Reed notes that she worked at the center from 2018 to November 2022, and that while she supports “trans rights,” she “witnessed the Center cause permanent harm to many of the patients.”
“During my time at the Center, I personally witnessed Center healthcare providers lie to the public and to parents of patients about the treatment, or lack of treatment, and the effects of treatment provided to children at the Center,” she testified. “I witnessed children experience shocking injuries from the medication the Center prescribed. And I saw the Center make no attempt to track adverse outcomes of patients after they left the Center.”
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“I raised concerns internally for years,” she said. “But the doctors at the Center told me to stop raising these concerns.”
“On several occasions, the doctors have continued prescribing medical transition even when a parent stated that they were revoking consent,” she noted. “I have seen puberty blockers worsen the mental health outcomes of children. Children who have not contemplated suicide before being put on puberty blockers have attempted suicide after.”
Reed claimed that doctors at the center “publicly claimed that they do not do any gender transition surgeries on minors” but that “this was a lie” and “the Center regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery.”
She claimed that one doctor at the center gives patients a drug called Bicalutamide, a pancreatic cancer drug that may poison the liver but has a side effect of causing breasts to grow. “There are no clinical studies for using this drug for gender transitions, and there are no established standards of care for using this drug.”
She said children came in asking for hormones because they did not want to be gay, were changing their identities on a day-to-day basis, or were “using pronouns of inanimate objects like ‘mushroom,’ ‘rock,’ or ‘helicopter.’” Many parents pressured them to identify as transgender. “In all these cases, the doctors decide to issue puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.” In one case, a girl received cross-sex hormones because she wanted to avoid getting pregnant.
Reed also recalled a girl who got her breasts removed. “Three months later, the patient contacted the surgeon and asked for their breasts to be ‘put back on.’ Had a requisite and adequate assessment been performed before the procedure, the doctors could have prevented this patient from undergoing irreversible surgical change,” she said.
Reed also alleged that from 2020 to 2022, the Center started more than 600 kids on medical transition. While private insurance “mostly” paid for the procedures, Reed said, “It is my understanding that the Center also billed the cost for these procedures to state and federal publicly funded insurance programs.”
In response to these and other allegations, Bailey announced an investigation.
“We have received disturbing allegations that individuals at the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital have been harming hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them,” he said in a statement Thursday. “We take this evidence seriously and are thoroughly investigating to make sure children are not harmed by individuals who may be more concerned with a radical social agenda than the health of children.”
Sheila Solon, director at the state’s Division of Professional Registration, noted that the medical professionals involved in this scandal may lose their professional licenses.
“The Division of Professional Registration and its 41 licensing boards license over 525,000 Missourians in more than 300 professions,” Solon said. “Importantly, the Division and its boards’ mission is the protection of the public, especially those most vulnerable.”
“The Division’s licensing boards will investigate the complaints they receive as part of this investigation, and take any necessary action against the licenses of Missouri professionals in violation of the boards’ statutory and regulatory authority to ensure health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Missouri,” she added.
Although many national health organizations support experimental interventions to force male bodies to appear female and vice versa, the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine recently approved a new rule banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries for minors.
The Florida Department of Public Health determined that “systematic reviews on hormonal treatment for young people show a trend of low-quality evidence, small sample sizes, and medium to high risk of bias.” It cited an Internal Review of Psychiatry study stating that 80% of those seeking clinical care will lose their desire to identify with the opposite sex.
Many European countries that are usually considered more “progressive” than the United States are withdrawing their support for these interventions, encouraging young people to get psychiatric help first. Potential side effects from cross-sex hormones include weakened bone density, osteoporosis, heart problems, and infertility.
St. Louis Children’s Hospital did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the possibility that some doctors may lose their licenses due to this investigation.
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