The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) provided guidance Wednesday on treating gender dysphoria for children and adolescents in response to information recently provided by the federal government.
The FDOH press release noted that “gender dysphoria is characterized by a strong, persistent cross-gender identification associated with anxiety, depression, irritability, and often a wish to live as a gender different from the one associated with the sex assigned at birth.”
The release stated that FDOH wanted to clarify evidence recently cited by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) related to the treatment of gender dysphoria. The HHS release stated that for “transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, early gender affirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being as it allows the child or adolescent to focus on social transitions and can increase their confidence while navigating the healthcare system.”
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issued a statement criticizing the federal directive.
“It was about injecting political ideology into the health of our children,” Ladapo said. “Children experiencing gender dysphoria should be supported by family and seek counseling, not pushed into an irreversible decision before they reach 18.”
The FDOH guidance states that due to the lack of conclusive evidence, and the potential for long-term, irreversible effects, the recommended guidelines are:
- Social gender transition should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
- Anyone under 18 should not be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
- Gender reassignment surgery should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
- Based on the currently available evidence, “encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm.”
- Children and adolescents should be provided social support by peers and family and seek counseling from a licensed provider.
The FDOH justifies these guidelines by noting 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.” In addition, FDOH references a paper published in the International Review of Psychiatry that found 80 percent of those seeking clinical care will lose their desire to identify with the non-birth sex.
The FDOH release also states that the Florida directives are in line with the guidance, reviews, and recommendations from Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom and France.
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Steve Stewart is a senior contributor at The Florida Capital Star. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Joeseph Lapado” by Joseph Lapado.
