Medicalized "Gender Transition" Called into Question

In April, the prestigious Economist magazine ran a story titled “The evidence to support medicalized gender transitions in adolescents is worryingly weak.” The article reviewed current research studies and highlighted trends in treatment. One major finding was that these transition treatments are seldom questioned in the United States. However, in many European nations, there are grave questions and many concerns about so-called “gender transition therapy.”

A review of the research reveals major concerns about the procedures and that many studies that propose to assess “gender transition” treatments are significantly flawed. This includes a review study that purported to find few side effects with “transition” procedures but which failed to examine whether the therapy was even effective. Other studies repeatedly show this “therapy” has detrimental effects. Although the research is currently limited, three recent studies have shown that of those who start “gender transition therapy,” 7 to 30 percent chose to stop the therapy before it was complete. The thrust of the Economist article speaks to just how aggressively medicalized, so-called “gender affirmation” is being pushed by advocates, even within professional institutions, in spite of its clearly questionable effectiveness and unknown long-term outcomes.

Society today appears intent on promoting practices without considering their consequences or even their morality. Doctors, once tasked with “doing no harm,” seem to have cast that philosophy aside. Yet, as Isaiah prophesied about society at the end of the age, “the whole head is sick” (Isaiah 1:5). Ultimately, we see in modern medicine, and society as a whole, a parallel to the degraded morality of the ancient, pre-monarchy Israelite peoples: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). Without the moral compass of the Bible and a submission to the authority and leadership of God, there is no central source for right and wrong. We should not be surprised by what we are seeing. This is just one more reason we need the return of the Lawgiver Himself, Jesus Christ, to correct this tragic situation. To learn more, watch “Humanity’s Moral Meltdown.”