Gender 'expert' claims without evidence that more kids will be a 'suicide stat' if not allowed to transition

An expert in pediatric "gender-affirming" care has said that if gender-confused children are not given access to experimental puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, many will end up becoming a suicide statistic, despite there being no evidence to support the claim.

Dr. Kathryn Lowe, an executive member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) LGBT Health and Wellness committee, made the comments during a Gender Affirming Care session of the Wisconsin AAP annual meeting in May this year, during which she also said it is important to talk to adolescents about the possibility of banking their sperm or eggs, and other options for becoming a parent aside from having biological kids.

In footage uncovered by parental rights advocate Megan Brock, Lowe admitted that there’s not a lot of research in the area, but that when a child has their puberty blocked with experimental drugs, and then is immediately put on cross-sex hormones, the likely outcome is infertility. According to Lowe, one of the trickiest parts about "gender-affirming hormone therapy" is talking to the youth and their families about infertility.

In response to a concern raised by Dr. Suzanne Wright about the children they treat being too young to understand the implications of the medical pathway on their future sexual function and pleasure, Lowe responded that first of all, she wasn’t familiar with the data because she just focuses on kids, but that while many adults think children are too young to be grappling with such mature subject matter, "the alternative is not going to let them live."

"For many of these kids who really need these medications, it's go on these medications or they end up in that suicide stat," said Lowe.

But the trouble is, the transition-or-suicide myth has never been proven. Gender-affirming care proponents cite alarming statistics that have no basis in solid science, and several experts have pointed out that the statistics just don’t hold up to scrutiny. Research that claims transgender youth have a much higher risk of suicide compares the at-risk group to the general population of teenagers, yet when compared with other groups of adolescents suffering from mental health issues, there is no difference in risk.

Suicide prevention experts warn against over-simplifying suicide as this can put vulnerable groups at a greater risk of suicide ideation given the fact that suicide can be socially contagious, and as Leor Sapir pointed out in his rebuttal of the transition-or-suicide myth: "It's difficult to imagine a more 'simplistic explanation' than 'kids will kill themselves if their gender identity is not affirmed.'"

Also during the panel discussion, Lowe talked about how exhausting she finds addressing the issue of people who are not "susceptible to education persuasion." Lowe describes the process of finding allies within the public school system who can help her make connections.

"I found allies in the public school and I went through them," Lowe explained. "A school psychologist was huge, and I let her slowly connect me up to the superintendent, but I went through her."

Lowe went on to say that she finds it exhausting having to work with people who are not in the "moveable middle." By this she means people who are opposed to children being allowed to consent to irreversible medical procedures that will likely leave them sterile and lacking sexual function before they are even old enough to consent to getting a tattoo, a medical scandal that one pediatric neurosurgeon recently called “an extraordinary medical atrocity.”