Young Children Do Not Receive Medical Gender Transition Treatment
SciCheck Digest
Families seeking information from a health care provider about a young child’s gender identity may have their questions answered or receive counseling. Some posts share a misleading claim that toddlers are being “transitioned.” To be clear, prepubescent children are not offered transition surgery or drugs.
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Some children identify with a gender that does not match their sex assigned at birth. These children are referred to as transgender, gender-diverse or gender-expansive. Doctors will listen to children and their family members, offer information, and in some cases connect them with mental health care, if needed.
But for children who have not yet started puberty, there are no recommended drugs, surgeries or other gender-transition treatments.
Recent social media posts shared the misleading claim that medical institutions in North Carolina are “transitioning toddlers,” which they called an “experimental treatment.” The posts referenced a blog post published by the Education First Alliance, a conservative nonprofit in North Carolina that says many schools are engaging in “ideological indoctrination” of children and need to be reformed.
The group has advocated the passage of a North Carolina bill to restrict medical gender-transition treatment before age 18. There are now 18 states that have taken action to restrict medical transition treatments for minors.
A widely shared article from the Epoch Times citing the blog post bore the false headline: “‘Transgender’ Toddlers as Young as 2 Undergoing Mutilation/Sterilization by NC Medical System, Journalist Alleges.” The Epoch Times has a history of publishing misleading or false claims. The article on transgender toddlers then disappeared from the website, and the Epoch Times published a new article clarifying that young children are not receiving hormone blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgery.
Representatives from all three North
