NBC News lies to protect Boston Children's Hospital that offered trans surgeries for minors

Boston Children's Hospital doesn't want the public to know just how young their patients seeking "gender affirming" treatment are. Their application forms for genital surgery state that biological boys seeking "vaginoplasty" must be 17, biological girls seeking hysterectomy and phalloplasty 18, and girls seeking "chest reconstruction," or double mastectomies of healthy breasts, must be 15, though there's wiggle room if the request has parental approval.

Yet when The Post Millennial reported on this, along with many Twitter accounts, Boston Children's balked. The response to Boston Children's Hospital's apparent promotion of medicalized gender transition for minors, along with genital surgeries for young adults, was shocking to many.

NBC reported how dangerous they felt it was to Boston Children's Hospital for the public to become aware of their advocacy of facilitating transitions of children, teens and young adults, through drugs and surgeries, and stated that employees there are reeling after "false claims" about the hospital's "treatment of young transgender people."

The Post Millennial reported that Boston Children's Hospital allowed vaginoplasties on 17-year-old males, phalloplasties on 18-year-old females, and double mastectomies for 15-year-olds. The hospital also gives young teens puberty blockers. This is clear per their eligibility requirements, found on their website.

In the wake of the backlash, they took down their videos in which doctors spoke in glowing terms about the process of removing a healthy young adult's uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes and cervix, and about how parents can tell a child is trans even before they can talk, as playing with "opposite sex" toys is an indicator of the child feeling distress in their natural body.

NBC reports that the PR office at Boston Children's Hospital "sent an email to employees with guidance on how to respond to harassment and threats earlier this week, citing an 'increase of threatening and aggressive' phone calls and emails sent to the hospital commenting on treatment of transgender patients."

And NBC blamed those who had publicized Boston Children's Hospital's practices for the backlash against those practices. NBC claims that the idea that Boston Children's Hospital performs genital reconstruction surgeries on young people was not true, but the hospital has said that they do perform these surgeries on 17 and 18 year olds, and may do so younger with parental consent.

Chris Elston, however, posted on Twitter that a source at Boston Children's Hospital told him that the NBC story "lies about BCH," and that only one threat was received, and "there has been nothing about threats or increased security."

"The article makes it sound like they have warned us of dangerous, imminent threats and have increased security. The only mention of anything pertaining to all of this was the email I shared with you. I guarantee most people who work there have no idea what is happening. They have told us nothing about increasing security or to be wary of danger in anyway. Only to refer emails and calls to PR."

"They also lied repeatedly about the age for procedures," the source said. "They still have up that they perform mastectomies on 15 YOs"

Boston Children's Hospital follows WPATH guidelines, which recommend surgeries on younger teens with parental consent, and on a case-by-case basis. Zadrozny claims that the videos Boston Children's hospital removed do not say that they provide surgeries to minors, but in fact they do.

Boston Children's Hospital also provides profiles and testimonials of young patients who have come through their GeMS, or Gender Multispecialty Service. One of those is Leven, a 7th grader, who is shown on the site smiling in their new identity. "At 13," Boston Children's Hospital writes, "Leven Ford has more knowledge about who they are than many adults do about themselves. That wisdom includes the understanding that they don’t fall in the classic gender binary of exclusively male or female."

The story quotes Leven's mother, who says that "It really turns things around when you listen to your child and realize that they often know what’s best for them."

Leven, at 13 years old, takes puberty blockers in the forms of "implanted medications that block the hormones that lead to puberty-related changes that might otherwise not align with their gender identity." Puberty is the natural process of maturation for human beings. Leven's psychologist is also non-binary, and Leven sees that psychologist, Col Williams, at GeMS.

Boston Children's Hospital writes that when a child says they are not the male or female their bodies dictate them to be, parents should "Remember that your child is simply expressing who they already know they are." Leven's mother talks about how nervous she was about Leven getting pierced ears, but that "seeing Leven happy in their own skin helped ease any concerns." Perhaps that is the same perspective Leven's mother, under the guidance of Boston Children's Hospital, has about the life-altering drugs Leven is taking, which can lead to sterilization.

Elijah is another patient of GeMS, who is in 10th grade and taking puberty blockers after Elijah's family moved from Texas to New England to access the services. This teen's family is working with Boston Children's Hospital on "fertility preservation." Elijah has moved from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones under the care of GeMS, and routinely undergoes bone scans. Elijah is a frequent visitor to the hospital, and will undoubtedly be so for the entirety of their natural life.

"'We were concerned about fertility preservation," says Sarah [Elijah's mother], referring to a sometimes-overlooked aspect of care for trans patients. This process allows patients to preserve sperm or eggs for future use so they may one day have a biological child. Fortunately, Dr. Carswell was able to recommend that Elijah meet with a Boston Children’s urologist to discuss her options. 'He was sensitive to our questions and concerns,' says Sarah. 'It’s a great example of having the right experts on hand when we need them.'"

The FDA has not approved these drugs for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria, and recently added warning labels for the vast harms associated with off-label use.

Boston Children's Hospital took down their videos, they updated their website to obfuscate what they were doing, and NBC drank the Kool-Aid. Boston Children's Hospital touts themselves as the "first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the United States." They advocate for medicalized gender transition of minors, and NBC would rather gloss over that and blame conservatives and children's advocates than realize a hospital specializing in treating children is butchering our youth through sterilizing drugs and surgeries.