Mia Hughes and Michael Shellenberger published The WPATH Files: Pseudoscientific Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children, Adolescents and Vulnerable People.
The world's largest transgender health group has been advocating hormonal and surgical transitions for kids, including painful experimental operations meant to produce sexless bodies akin to department store mannequins, according to a massive internal data leak from WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health). WPATH is the group whose standards of care are in use in children's hospitals and medical practices across the United States and the world for treatment of so-called trans kids as well as gender dysphoric adults.
Leaked videos and documents show that the organization is run by gender-fanatical activists who disregard questions about whether minors can give their consent for medical procedures that, as WPATH members know in private, frequently have severe and long-lasting side effects.
Nonetheless, the WPATH guidelines are still used by the US government, US physicians, and well-known organizations when making treatment decisions for our children.
Journalist Michael Shellenberger received the data, which included jaw-dropping exchanges from a WPATH internal message board and a video of a panel discussion at the Identity Evolution Workshop. On March 4, Mia Hughes published The WPATH Files: Pseudoscientific Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children, Adolescents and Vulnerable People with the byline "World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) members demonstrate a lack of consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects of cross-sex hormones and other treatments."
"With the release of the WPATH Files, it's important to keep in mind that WPATH has been using mainstream medical associations like the Endocrine Society (@TheEndoSociety) to launder its pseudoscientific claims and promote experimental and harmful practices," says Leo Sapir.
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View on XThe damning summary report that compares the WPATH's advocacy of "the pseudoscientific surgical destruction of healthy genitals in vulnerable people" to the mid-20th-century practice of lobotomies, or "the pseudoscientific surgical destruction of healthy brains," has been made public by the nonprofit Environmental Progress.
It's hardly an exaggeration to compare this to one of the biggest medical scandals in history.
The files consistently demonstrate that this is especially true in cases when WPATH's harsh stance toward minors is involved.
The organization eliminated a draft chapter about ethics and the minimum age requirements for children starting puberty blockers or undergoing sexual modification surgeries when it adopted its current Standards of Care in 2022. These standards are backed by the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, and every major American medical and psychiatric association.
It had earlier advised 17 to have surgery and 16 to begin hormone therapy.
Age is a common topic in the WPATH files, which is not unexpected given the worries about anything from whether a 13-year-old with developmental delays may begin taking puberty blockers to whether hormones can impede a 10-year-old girl's growth.
In one discussion, a participant sought guidance on a 14-year-old patient—a male who identified as a girl and had started transitioning at the age of 4.
The youngster insisted on having a vaginoplasty, a procedure that involves repositioning tissue to create a non-functional pseudo-vagina by removing the penis, testicles, and scrotum. A lifetime of dilation is necessary. At 14, was he too young?
The president of WPATH, Marci Bowers, is a transgender pelvic and gynecologic surgeon located in California. Bowers, who operated on Jazz Jennings, called any age restriction "arbitrary."
Bowers refused to do it, though. Why? "The dilation routine is too critical; the tissue is too immature," Bowers said.
To put it simply, this implies that the surgeon must collect intestinal lining to create the false vagina since males who are too young do not have adequate penile tissue for the procedure. Bowers acknowledges that this may result in "problematic surgical outcomes."
Nevertheless, Bowers informed Bowers' peers in the private discussion board that, given that teenagers are still under their parents' supervision at the house where they were raised, "sometime before the end of high school does make some sense."
Plastic surgeon Christine McGinn, who identifies as transgender, concurred. Having completed "about 20 vaginoplasties in patients under the age of 18," McGinn believes that the summer before a patient's senior year of high school is the "ideal time in the U.S. for surgery."
McGinne stated that it is troublesome to wait until teenagers are in college and older than 18 because "there are too many stressors in college that limit patients' ability to dilate."
Patients are told by WPATH that hormonal and surgical therapies are proven science and medically sound. In private, however, it's a different story.
For example, Bowers said in public in 2022 that puberty blockers are "completely reversible," even if Bowers acknowledged it is "in its infancy" in the internal forum.
What about kids who began using hormone blockers before they reached puberty and are therefore permanently infertile? Bowers informed Bowers' peers that there is "no research on the fertility question."
At other points, participants openly discuss the difficulties associated with the transition operation for females, known as a phalloplasty, which involves creating a non-functional pseudo-penis out of either thigh or forearm tissue. A complete hysterectomy and vaginal excision are necessary. They also talk about additional grave outcomes, such as incontinence, abnormal pap tests, vaginal shrinkage, and pelvic inflammatory disease.
An oncologist determined that hormones were the source of two liver tumors that formed in a 16-year-old girl who had been on puberty blockers for several years before starting testosterone therapy for a year. "A young patient on testosterone for three years" was reported by another participant as having "vaginal/pelvic pain/spotting... [and] atrophy with the persistent yellow discharge."
A number of colleagues reported seeing individuals with comparable illnesses; others had severe bleeding after intercourse or crippling gastrointestinal issues, with some patients describing their discomfort as "feeling like broken glass."
"The transgender people under my surveillance do not complain about this matter," stated a WPATH member, who appeared shocked.
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WPATH continued to support far more drastic "nullification" procedures for patients who identify simply as nonbinary and do not feel either male or female, despite the long list of negative consequences associated with transition surgery.
A number of so-called "de-gendering" procedures aim to produce a smooth, sexless cosmetic look that is unheard of in the natural world. Even an experimental procedure known as "bi-genital" surgery aims to create a second pair of genitalia.
When tabloids revealed in 2017 that a 22-year-old guy had paid $50,000 to have his sex parts surgically removed in order to "transform into a genderless extraterrestrial," it appeared to be an isolated incident. However, WPATH has codified that idea in its Standard of Care, which is the same document that authorized chemical or surgical castration for patients who identify as eunuchs for the first time. (WPATH even included a link to the anonymous male castration fetish sharing site, the Eunuch Archives.) Reduxx did an expose on this, showing the link between eunuch fetish porn sites and WPATH.
These monstrous operations, comparable to the twisted deeds of Mengele, are not limited to adult patients.
Plastic surgeon Thomas Satterwhite, who will lead the WPATH 28th Scientific Symposium "A Gender Diverse World in Global Unity" along with Bowers, questioned, "How do we come up with appropriate standards for non-binary patients?"
Since 2014, Satterwhite has performed surgery on dozens of patients who were younger than 18. "Recently, I've noticed an increasing number of patients asking for 'non-standard' procedures."
One might wonder what exactly are "non-standard procedures."
"Non-binary top surgery" refers to a mastectomy performed without the nipples. For females, there are harsh treatments that remove all or a portion of the vagina; for boys, there are procedures that amputate the testicles, penis, and scrotum.
According to the website of one surgical center in San Francisco, the objective is "a smooth, neutral body that is cosmetically free of sexual identification." The tendency is referred to as a "flat front" on TikTok.
One especially contentious topic of conversation was whether or not kids could comprehend the long-term effects of the gender therapies they get. Lawmakers assume that minors are incapable of making an educated decision regarding a tubal ligation or vasectomy.
As long as the minor "demonstrates the emotional and cognitive maturity required to provide informed consent/assent for the treatment," all treatments are permitted under WPATH's Standard of Care.
But during the "Identity Evolution" internal session in May 2022, WPATH members acknowledged that it was nearly unfeasible. The endocrinologist from British Columbia, Daniel Metzger, wrote the position paper on health care for trans minors for the Canadian Pediatric Society. He stated, "I think the thing you have to remember about kids is that we're often explaining these sorts of things to people who haven't even taken biology in high school yet."
Metzger pointed out that teenagers are unable to understand the long-term effects of infertility. He explained trying to talk about infertility to a minor saying, "I know I'm talking to a blank wall, but it's always a good theory that you talk about fertility preservation with a 14-year-old.” Metzger observed that typically these conversations would elicit two sorts of responses from a minor – an expression of disdain at the thought of having a child or, alternatively, a disconnect between the minor’s idea of their own body and fertility and would respond that their plan was adoption.
Metzger continued, “Then you ask, ‘Well, what does that [adoption] involve?’ to them. For example, what is the cost? And they answer, ‘Oh, I assumed you simply went to the orphanage and received a baby.’"
Implying that many of these minors don’t ever end up having children, Metzger mused, “Seeing as how many kids I follow until their mid-twenties, I suppose I'm constantly thinking, ‘Oh, the dog isn't doing it for you, right?’"
Numerous studies have demonstrated that teenage brains are hardwired to be impulsive and incapable of appreciating the significance of actions that have long-term effects. This explains why tattoos and gun purchases by teenagers are frowned upon in society. The minimum age to rent a car is 25, and Sweden has the same age restriction for choosing to get sterilized.
Another set of communications reveals that while many WPATH members secretly question that teenagers are capable of providing really informed permission for treatments that alter life, they nonetheless have to accept whatever their kids say about their gender. Unless the patient wants to change their direction and become a so-called detransitioner, as the WPATH files reveal.
Most WPATH members discount those incidents as unimportant or exaggerated by the media, and they wonder if young people who wish to return to their biological sex truly know what they're getting themselves into.
In one instance, a practitioner describes a patient, a 17-year-old male who had just received his high school diploma and had been taking testosterone for two years. It was said that he was "extremely upset and furious." He claimed that the irreversible modifications to his physique have distressed him and that he feels like he was brainwashed. According to a self-described "queer therapist," no young kid could be indoctrinated. "Those stories, in my experience, come from people who actively oppose transgender rights." The therapist claimed the male had fallen into a right-wing crowd and had been influenced by Matt Walsh.
"I do see talk of the phenomenon [detransitioners] as distracting from the many challenges we face," stated Bowers.
In the WPATH Files, members show a disregard for long-term patient outcomes while being aware of the crippling and sometimes lethal adverse effects of cross-sex hormones and other therapies. According to the messages in the files, people with serious mental health difficulties like schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, as well as other vulnerabilities like homelessness, are being permitted to consent to hormonal and surgical procedures.
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View on XMembers ignore worries about these patients and view efforts to safeguard them as superfluous "gatekeeping."
The data show that doctors and therapists are aware that they are providing kids with life-changing therapies that they do not fully grasp. WPATH members are aware that puberty blockers, hormones, and procedures can lead to infertility and other consequences, such as cancer and pelvic floor dysfunction. They do, however, contemplate life-changing medical treatments for young patients, such as vaginoplasty for a 14-year-old and hormones for a 13-year-old with developmental delays.
The WPATH Files also demonstrate how far medical experiments in gender medicine have progressed, with conversations of surgeons doing "nullification" and other radical body alteration treatments to produce body types that do not exist naturally.
A rising number of medical and psychiatric specialists believe that the promotion of pseudoscientific surgical and hormonal experimentation is a worldwide medical scandal on par with significant cases of medical misconduct throughout history, such as lobotomies and ovariectomies.
The risk of combining scientific and medical research with ideological advocacy was highlighted by the released materials. The medical associations and governmental organizations that depend on WPATH guidelines for transgender health have to see this as an urgent wake-up call.