Number of adolescents seeking gender treatments has ‘skyrocketed,’ puberty blockers handed out “like candy,” says pediatric doctor in unearthed webinar

A Boston children’s doctor specializing in “gender management” says gender dysphoria and its treatment are skyrocketing – just one of number of shocking statements he made in a recently uncovered webinar.

“This is probably no surprise to everybody who is listening: the number of adolescents who have been coming into gender programs over the last several years has really kind of skyrocketed,” Dr. Jeremi Carswell, a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in the webinar, as reported by the Daily Wire.

“[T]here’s a lot of people using blockers, and that’s great because it can be really helpful, but I think, I worry that they’re being given out a lot like candy, which is great in some ways, but it’s also like ok well, you know, you need to have the conversation about fertility,” Carswell said in a Q&A portion of the video. “And you need to understand that you don’t get to have this like Peter Pan life.”

Carswell’s talk, entitled “Puberty Blockers and Hormone Therapy for Gender Diverse Youth and Adolescents,” was part of a 2020 conference called “Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health,” but is only accessible behind a registration wall on the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center website. 

Carswell, who is also the director of the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Gender Management Service, reports the dramatic rise in youth presenting with gender dysphoria: 

“This is a worldwide phenomenon and we’re not really quite sure what the story is behind that, but we do know that a lot of people have been presenting [with gender dysphoria], mostly assigned females.” 

She backed up that claim with a graph demonstrating “new patient volume by year” at her clinic, showing a major spike in patient volume.  

Carswell then added, “Our admin staff is telling me on an average week, we get anywhere from two to about eighteen calls for new patients per week.” 

That was 2020. Recent reports suggests those numbers only continue to skyrocket. According to Reuters, “In 2021, about 42,000 children and teens across the United States received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, nearly triple the number in 2017.” And during the same period, prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormone therapies have more than doubled. 

Later in the webinar, Carswell responds to a question about safely prescribing puberty blockers, implying she is worried about how easily they are given out while also calling it “great.” She did urge some caution, however, explaining that doctors are apt to let young patients impose their demands on them, which she calls “dangerous.” 

“I’ve never seen anywhere in medicine as much as I do in this field where I think we as providers get very, very, very swayed by our patients…We don’t need a generation of people who are having all these health issues because we didn’t want to wait and be a little more cautious with our treatments,” Carswell said. 

Some cultural observers and critics have suggested the push for universal acceptance of transgenderism, along with the social pressure youth experience, have led to these recent trends.  

In a now-deleted video on the Boston Children’s YouTube channel, Carswell claimed some children know they are transgender “the minute they were born” – a claim that critics think is impossible. 

Additionally, evidence is mounting that doctors and hospitals are also motivated by the profitability of gender procedures. 

In fact, it has been reported that Carswell herself received payments from Endo Pharmaceutical, which is under investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for potential violations by the company, which allegedly promoted puberty blockers “for unapproved uses without disclosing the potential risks associated with these drugs to children and their parents.”