Aletho News

Sweden Ditches Barbaric ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care for Kids

BY MATT MARGOLIS | PJ MEDIA | DECEMBER 27, 2022

The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) recently published new treatment guidelines which completely abandon recommendations that children with gender identity issues undergo so-called “gender-affirming care.”

Sweden’s new treatment guidelines for youth with “gender dysphoria,” which came out last week, say that the first line of treatment should be psychosocial support rather than giving kids dangerous drugs to stop puberty or mutilating their bodies.

“Psychosocial support that helps the young person live with the body’s pubertal development without medication needs to be the first option when choosing care measures,” the new guidelines read.

According to NBHW, “the risks of puberty suppressing treatment with GnRH-analogues and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits, and that the treatments should be offered only in exceptional cases.”

“The NBHW still considers that gender dysphoria rather than gender identity should determine access to care and treatment,” the report said.

With this move, Sweden flat-out rejects the West’s current obsession with “gender identity” ideology — which is refreshing. Here at PJ Media, we’ve been pointing out for a long time that “gender dysphoria” is a psychological problem that requires psychological intervention. Unfortunately, we’ve seen far too many stories of the transgender cult rushing to mutilate children without any psychological intervention first.

The new guidelines are a significant departure from the guidelines Sweden adopted in 2015, which were based on radical recommendations from the activist World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

Sweden changed its guidelines because there wasn’t enough reliable scientific evidence to support the WPATH guidelines. The NBHW also cited the growing number of incidents of detransitioning.

“Although the prevalence of detransition is still unknown, the knowledge that it occurs and that gender confirming treatment thus may lead to a deteriorating of health and quality of life (i.e. harm), is important for the overall judgment and recommendation,” the new guidelines explain.

This stands in stark contrast to the attitudes of the current administration in the United States. Dr. Richard “Rachel” Levine, Joe Biden’s assistant secretary for health, claims that “there is no argument” about “gender-affirming care” among pediatricians and doctors who specialize in adolescents. Biden also wants taxpayers to foot the bill for gender transitions of kids.

Another factor that played a role in Sweden’s decision to ditch WPATH’s guidelines was the sharp rise in the number of young people with gender dysphoria for no clear reason, especially among teenage girls who had never had gender distress before.

WPATH has been denounced by an international group of mental health professionals, public health scientists, and allied organizations and individuals for its “adherence to ideological views unsupported by evidence, its exclusion of ethical concerns, and its mischaracterization of basic science.”

Related: Controversial Transgender Clinic Shuts Down in U.K., Deemed ‘Not Safe’ for Children

January 1, 2023 - Posted by aletho | Science and Pseudo-Science | Sweden