Pentagon doctors say 7-year-olds can make trans decisions for themselves

In an op-ed disguised as a scientific research paper, Pentagon doctors are pressing to allow children as young as 7 to make medical decisions about transitioning to another gender.

“We believe the DoD can continue to lead in this domain,” concluded authors David A. Klein, Natasha A. Schvey, Thomas A. Baxter, Noelle S. Larson, and Christina M. Roberts, in a paper titled “Caring for Military-Affiliated Transgender and Gender-Diverse Youths.” 

The paper appeared in the American Journal of Public Health and was made publicly accessible thanks to funding from Children’s Mercy Kansas City, a pediatric medical center already under fire for its promotion of cross-sex treatments for young children. 

The authors argue that unless children who are “transgender or gender-diverse,” or TGD, can immediately make medical decisions for themselves, they are at risk for certain harms, particularly suicide. 

With many states beginning to restrict the often irreversible transitioning procedures performed on youth, the doctors said the kids who end up on military bases in such states are at increased risk.

“Gender-affirming health care, such as puberty suppression and affirming hormones, mitigates these risks and optimizes patient-oriented outcomes, but many TGD youths have difficulty accessing services,” claimed the authors.

But one expert on detransitioning said the assertions of the paper’s authors are false.  

“The notion that 7-year-old children are capable of such decisions is beyond laughable,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb told Fox News. 

Goldfarb contends that the percentages of people who detransition could be as high as 25% of those who previously received so-called gender-affirming care.  

It demonstrate “the folly of assuming the soundness of childhood decisions,” said Goldfarb.  

That hasn’t stopped the media from quoting experts, who largely make their money by working in transgender medical services or lobbying, from asserting that trans regret is either rare or non-existent. 

“How common is transgender treatment regret, detransitioning?” asked the Associated Press in a headline earlier this month, before citing questionable sources or questionable results.

“In updated treatment guidelines issued last year, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health said evidence of later regret is scant,” the article claims, before citing a Dutch study that showed “no evidence of regret” by adults who made trans decisions as kids.

“My own personal experience is that it is quite uncommon,” Dr. Michael Irwig, director of transgender medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told the AP. “I’ve taken care of over 350 gender-diverse patients and probably fewer than five have told me that they decided to detransition or changed their minds.” Irwig didn’t specify whether he thought some patients may not share their regrets with him.

With eight states already imposing restrictions on trans medical treatments for children and 23 others considering such measures, it might cause medical professionals who work on trans care, like Irwig, to respond with some humility, rather than just dismiss five disfigured adults as “uncommon.”

In fact, Irwig’s anecdotal statistic suggests that trans regret occurs at a higher rate (1.43%) than that of trans-identifying individuals in the general population (0.6%). 

“The ideas that a child’s declaration of their gender identity should clear any obstacles to irreversible gender transition surgery stems more from extreme political orthodoxy than from what’s in the best interest, the long-term interests, of the child,” said state Rep. Will Wade of Georgia, as the state banned most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for children under 18.