The Biden administration has advocated for the use of puberty-blocking and hormone therapy treatment drugs for transgender adolescents despite spending over $17 million on studies to analyze the dangers and ambiguities of these medications.
Nearly 30 studies are being funded by the National Institutes of Health to look into the health issues transgender people face after undergoing hormone treatment. Some examples are infertility, a higher risk of cardiovascular illness, and lower resistance to STDs. Research funded by the National Institutes of Health on transgender youth has uncovered some of these challenges.
Inhibitors of puberty “have not been adequately examined,” according to research published last year that is still underway. Another study on adolescent hormone replacement treatment reaches the same conclusion: “little to no scientific data guiding therapeutic techniques.”
Although puberty inhibitors and hormone therapy have been licensed for use in other contexts, the FDA has not yet given its blessing to their use in the treatment of transgender people.
The White House has criticized the bans on puberty-blocking drugs and hormone treatment for minors that have been enacted in several states, calling them “bullying disguised as legislation” and an attack on “lifesaving health care.”
In March, the Department of Justice sent a letter to state attorneys general asserting that such regulations violate federal law because they are discriminatory. When Alabama followed with a ban the following month, the DOJ sued. The trial challenging an Arkansas ban began on Monday.
Dr. Sue Greenwald, a physician in retirement with more than three decades of experience, says she has never had to prescribe puberty blockers and that the one child she treated for this illness had early puberty rather than gender dysphoria.
“These drugs were never intended for recreational usage,” Greenwald reportedly told Fox News Digital. “At one point in medical history, the dictum “first, do no harm” was considered the gold standard. There was a tipping point, and I can’t pinpoint it, but at some point, medical ethics stopped mattering.”
The NIH has supported research on the risks of transgender medical procedures for quite some time. The plan, which will be implemented over the next five years, is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to address the challenges faced by those it classifies as “sexual and gender minorities.” There is a mountain of literature proving the need for more excellent research into the possible and proven risks of hormone replacement treatment. In the years to come, funding is expected to rise for the vast majority of these studies.
Puberty Inhibitors
One study found that inhibiting puberty might have adverse effects on mental health and quality of life because of the way that the inhibitors “change puberty-signaled brain development in ways that potentially diminish mental health advantages over time.” An aggregate of $1,590,307 was contributed to it.
Another research with a budget of $377,019 will look at the possible link between puberty blockers and vascular issues.
Researchers spent $1,146,939 studying the effects of puberty blockers on the bone health of young, peri-pubertal transgender teenagers. Long-term bone issues may be influenced by hormone shifts, the study suggests.
The lack of information concerning the side effects of puberty blockers is highlighted by all three funded research initiatives.
Children and teens who are transitioning and receiving hormone treatment
The effects of hormone treatment with testosterone and estrogen on the neurodevelopment of transgender children and adolescents are of great interest, and this study received $716,204 to explore the topic further.
Transgender teenage cardiometabolic risk is assumed to be caused by an “altered hormonal milieu,” the subject of a $431,334 research.
There will be “different effects” on “markers of insulin resistance,” “lipid profiles,” “vascular health,” and “endothelial function” following the introduction of either testosterone or estrogen, the study description notes.
The possibility that estrogen hormone therapy may increase the risk of blood clots in transgender children is raised in a study that cost $450,554. This is a significant cause for worry in terms of cardiometabolic risk.
People often have concerns regarding the impact hormone treatment has on their immune systems. This threat to transgender people has been identified as a “critical gap in knowledge,” and researchers are requesting $431,334. The paper identifies the combination of hormone treatment and the increased sensitivity of adolescents to HIV as potential risk factors for transgender youth.
When asked why they spend so much, the NIH will say it’s to investigate the “whole spectrum of human health across all populations in the United States.”
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “research relating to gender-affirming therapy and its health implications continues to develop and adapt,” as reported by Fox News Digital. Evidence from studies funded by the National Institutes of Health is used by medical and health organizations to inform their advice and recommendations to the medical community.
Boston Children’s Hospital, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Hospital, and Lurie’s Hospital for Children are just a few of the children’s hospitals performing NIH-funded research on transgender youth.
The most extensive study on transgender hormone therapy finds substantial health concerns and few advantages, if any, according to Dr. Andre Van Mol, an American board-certified family physician and co-chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescent Sexuality.
For Van Mol, “experimental and unproven hormonal and surgical techniques imperil already at-risk gender dysphoric teenagers.” This was something she said to Fox News Digital. Transgender treatments are not keeping up with scientific facts.
The National Institutes of Health has allowed researchers to study the potential dangers of transgender hormone therapy in adults, who were previously only studied in pediatric studies. Previous studies have shown that transgender people have a higher chance of developing blood clots, strokes, attempting suicide, and becoming dependent on mental medications. There has to be follow-up research, according to a new, extensive nationwide study that cost $1,377,821.
Researchers conducting a second $571,892 study on vocal training for transgender guys found no evidence-based treatment for voice masculinization, despite its importance in gender-affirming medical intervention and personal safety.
Infections spread by sexual contact, including HIV
Transgender people have a vested interest in studying the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. The risk of HIV infection is multiplied by a factor of 49 for transgender women.
Though researchers attribute this mainly to their increased participation in sexually exploitative occupations and drug use, several studies supported by the National Institutes of Health look at how hormone therapy might compromise the sexual immune system. Thirteen studies, at a total cost of $6,947,474, have been completed.
Four studies look at the potential effects of testosterone treatment on the vaginal microenvironment of transgender guys. Two of these investigations concentrate on immune cells in the anus and include transsexual women. This study surveyed transgender women in Thailand.
Two studies look at how hormone treatment for transgender people could interfere with the virus’s meds. Two others explore why transgender women are more likely to get HIV than other women. This includes the trial in which male monkeys were injected with estrogen. One additional study found that the rate of HIV transmission among biological females was much lower than that among heterosexual couples.
Diseases of the heart, brain, and blood vessels; ischemic stroke and other clot-related events
Four other studies, totaling $2,613,870, will examine the cardiovascular risk in transgender people taking hormone therapy. There are a total of four studies that look at the effects of estrogen on transgender women and two that look at how HIV could increase cardiovascular risks.
One study states that the relationship between sex, gender, and cardiovascular disease has recently come under scrutiny due to findings that transgender people undergoing gender-affirming sex hormone treatment are at increased risk of [cardiovascular illness].
Infertility
The University of Michigan was granted $1,157,160 to fund two research. With this in mind, we conducted an experiment in which female mice were alternately deprived of and treated with androgens (such as testosterone).
A recent study found that the consequences of long-term cross-sex hormone therapy on reproductive health were not obvious, especially for transgender men. My fundamental hypothesis is that discontinuing testosterone medication will not completely reverse the adverse effects it has on reproduction.
They wouldn’t comment, White House officials said.