Kurt Miceli, MD, chief medical officer for Do No Harm, says the transition advocates have unfortunately manipulated many parents into believing that their child would kill themselves if they did not have these mutilative procedures done.
"The reality is that there's no evidence to support that pediatric medical transition decreases suicide at all," he tells AFN. "It's the comorbid psychiatric illness that is often the driving factor, and it's essential for us to treat those conditions—to treat the depression, to treat the anxiety, to treat those psychiatric conditions that an individual is facing—and not put them on a fast track pathway to puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries."
Recognizing that psychotherapy and psychosocial interventions are better treatments than medications and surgeries, Dr. Miceli points out that several countries in Europe have already moved in that direction.
In contrast to that of larger organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, which have promoted what Dr. Miceli calls the "suicide myth," past and present leaders of the conservate American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) have made similar comments.
That is why ACPeds, Do No Harm, and others applaud organizations like the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Medical Association (AMA) for now recommending delaying surgeries for minors until age 19.
"It's essential that we treat everybody with care, with compassion, with dignity," Dr. Miceli asserts. "But that also means that we're providing treatments that are evidence-based, that can support individuals—not rush them through a pathway that will give them lifelong consequences and irreversible harms."
