After Proclaiming The Opposite, Medical Pros Quietly Admit Mutilating Trans Kids Doesn’t Fix Depression

Government mandated child abuse.

After Proclaiming The Opposite, Medical Pros Quietly Admit Mutilating Trans Kids Doesn’t Fix Depression

By: Jason Rantz, The Federalist, August 26, 2022:

UW Medicine quietly revised publications to indicate that performing mutilative surgeries on trans children doesn’t fix depression.

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Amid contentious debates over gender identity, the University of Washington Medicine, or UW Medicine, proudly and eagerly alerted the press of a study in mid-March indicating that transgender teen patients saw rates of depression “plummet” because of so-called “gender-affirming care.”

The study earned nationwide praise. As Texas and Idaho were debating bans on allowing children to receive cross-sex hormones, this was the perfect research to show the heartlessness of conservative lawmakers and pundits who declared puberty blockers and surgical intervention as a dangerous and potentially irreversible gamble.

Most dramatically, after tracking the mental health of 104 transgender-identifying patients aged 13 to 20 for a year at Seattle Children’s Hospital, “gender-affirming care was associated with a 60% reduction in depression and a 73% drop in harmful or suicidal thoughts among the participants.”

But the study didn’t actually say what was initially claimed. Some voices now accuse the researchers of purposefully misinterpreting data to promote the irreversible.

UW Medicine’s communications department seemingly unintentionally misinterpreted the study. But their unwillingness to proactively correct the record was part of a concerted effort to downplay their errors because they had already received positive press, according to emails I uncovered through a public disclosure request.

The original press release was sent on March 11 and claimed that “gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary adolescents caused rates of depression to plummet.”

By April 8, UW Medicine communications staff dramatically changed the claims.

Independent journalist Jesse Singal started posing questions about the study to UW Communications staff, and one of the study’s authors, who agreed to speak on background, confirmed that some of the data the researchers presented, along with their claims, did not add up.

“Among the kids who went on hormones, there isn’t genuine statistical improvement here from baseline to the final wave of data collection,” Singal wrote on his Substack. “At baseline, 59% of the treatment-naive kids experienced moderate to severe depression. Twelve months later, 56% of the kids on GAM [gender-affirming medicine] experienced moderate to severe depression. At baseline, 45% of the treatment-naive kids experienced self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Twelve months later, 37% of the kids on GAM did.”

In other words, there was no statistically significant improvement. At best, the authors could argue that wrong-sex hormones and trans surgeries did not make these children’s depression worse than it already was.

Laura East, Department of Epidemiology spokeswoman, emailed colleagues that Singal posted “some pretty concerning claims.” However, she wrote that UW Medicine should not respond.

“As there is an overwhelming amount of positive coverage of the study’s findings, I don’t believe there’s a need for a proactive response beyond continuing to monitor, but welcome your ideas for any other actions or messaging with the study team. Happy to jump on a call too, if that’s easier,” East said.

One UW Medicine staffer acknowledged that, at worst, the research was “made up” yet did not want to engage because it had already received “extremely positive” coverage. At Seattle Children’s, a staffer won’t respond to reasonable criticisms that could affect its patients and their families.

Dr. Kym Ahrens, an assistant professor in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital and UW Medicine, is one of the study’s authors and was on an email chain with the communications staff. After initially writing a draft statement to clarify the findings, she offered an alternative plan.

“If it gives too much attention to clarify at all, I am also very open to not responding,” she suggested via email.

Ahrens did not respond to a request for comment to clarify her intent.

The pressure was mounting, and emails show that it became clear to the staff that they were wrong. They finally made edits to their press release on April 8, nearly a month after the positive coverage was broadcast and posted. The revisions were dramatic.

“UW researchers recently found that gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary adolescents likely mitigated rates of depression and suicidality,” the press release claimed in a significant departure from declarations of “plummeting” depression rates.

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