White House Issues Puberty Blocker Warning to Hospitals

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency, has issued a warning to hospitals about puberty blockers, branding medical interventions “harmful,” and warned it may update its policies surrounding them.

Reminding hospitals of their “obligation to protect American children from often irreversible chemical and surgical mutilation,” the statement continued that CMS may take additional appropriate actions to protect children.

Why It Matters

CMS, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said that the effects of puberty blockers are “irreversible.” However, a study from the American Physiological Society, and the Mayo Clinic, both claim that they are reversible. Puberty blockers serve to pause puberty, which often gives people who are questioning their gender time to figure out whether they are transgender before they fully develop into a body they may not be comfortable living in.

Another study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that transgender youths who had access to puberty blockers had lower rates of suicide.

If policies were to change, it could result in care being affected for patients who rely on Medicaid. Approximately 300,000 youths in the U.S. identify as transgender. More than 70 million people rely on Medicaid.

What To Know

CMS made this announcement two days after a court halted the government’s attempt to cut funding for medical providers in four states who offer gender-affirming care to transgender youth under 19.

The executive order withholding funds from medical providers who provide gender-affirming care was deemed unconstitutional by a District Court Judge who stated that the White House did not have the power to halt funds on its own.

Puberty blockers have been the subject of political debates for many years. The Trump Administration cited political interventions in Europe which have prevented transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers, stating that the U.S. is now “an outlier in the treatment of gender dysphoria in children.”

The Trump Administration has already banned issuing documents that state any gender other than the one people were assigned at birth on official documents, and stopped openly transgender people serving in the military.

In its press release, CMS cited the Mayo Clinic study that says puberty blockers are reversible, pointing to how the study also says potential long-term effects are limited growth spurts, bone growth, bone density and fertility. These are chemical effects which HHS says are not compatible with “the foundational principles of medicine in doing no harm.”

The Mayo Clinic went on in that study to say they recommend people on puberty blockers to take supplements to reduce the effect of the blockers on their bones. A study conducted on rats by the American Physiological Society found that after rats ended their puberty blocker course, their reproductive organs showed “normal development.”

What People Are Saying

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: “Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) alerted providers of their obligation to protect American children from often irreversible chemical and surgical mutilation, including interventions that cause sterilization.”

The Mayo Clinic: “[Puberty blockers] don’t cause permanent physical changes. Instead, they pause puberty. That offers a chance to explore gender identity. It also gives youth and their families time to plan for the psychological, medical, developmental, social and legal issues that may lie ahead.”

What Happens Next

The judge presiding over Trump’s initial effort to block gender affirming care said that his executive order violated trans people’s right to equal protection. This new move from the Trump Administration will likely also end up in court.