Jesse Singal: Should Kids Medically Transition?

Reason Podcasts

Jesse Signal questions the science of "gender affirming care." Text and links to sources available here: https://reason.com/podcast/2024/05/02/jesse-singal-should-kids-medically-transition Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to the Show and Topic: Kids and Gender Transition 02:14 Media Coverage and Jesse Singal's Insights 04:50 The Impact of Social Media and Activism on Youth Gender Medicine 09:36 Exploring the Tavistock Controversy and Its Implications 12:38 The Debate on Informed Consent and Medical Ethics 28:37 Social Contagion Theory and Its Effects on Gender Identity 34:03 Scrutinizing the Science Behind Gender Affirming Treatments 42:32 Navigating the Complexities of Youth Gender Medicine 43:03 The Role of Data and Evidence in Gender Transition Debates 44:34 The Impact of Politics and Misinformation on Transgender Healthcare 47:34 Exploring the Cass Review's Recommendations on Gender Medicine 49:24 Comparing Gender Medicine Practices: UK vs. USA 50:47 The Challenges of Establishing Effective Guidelines in Transgender Healthcare 51:25 The Influence of Activism and Politics on Medical Standards 55:16 Addressing the Concerns Around Puberty Blockers and Hormone Treatments 01:20:32 Just Ask Us Questions: A Discussion of anarcho-capitalist Security Should kids medically transition between genders? The number of kids diagnosed with gender dysphoria has surged in recent years. In America, diagnoses have almost tripled from about 15,000 to more than 42,000 between 2017 to 2021. In the United Kingdom, the number of minors referred to the national Gender Identity Development Service grew from 51 in 2009 to 1,766 by 2016, leading to years' long waitlists for care within the government-run health system. This surge caused England's National Health Service to commission an extensive study of youth gender treatment. That study is known as The Cass Review, and its results dropped on April 10. The review's author, former head of the Royal College of Pediatrics Hilary Cass, concluded that modern youth gender dysphoria interventions are informed by "remarkably weak evidence" drawing on studies "exaggerated by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint" and that "we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress." The science, it turns out, is not settled—or anywhere close to it. NHS England opted to stop routine prescriptions of puberty blockers following the review's publication, as have NHS Scotland and the Welsh Government. Major American medical groups like the American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, all of which endorse prescribing puberty blockers for gender-dysphoric kids, have yet to officially respond. American media coverage of the Review, which seems to throw the entire youth gender treatment paradigm in this country into question, has been remarkably muted. But today's guest is never muted. Jesse Singal has been covering this topic—and taken a lot of heat for it—for years in the pages of publications like The Atlantic, The Dispatch, and on his substack, Singal-Minded. Sources referenced in Just Ask Us Questions: https://youtu.be/TwiE1dxGYNY https://youtu.be/Cy2Xla_urNI