The Trump Administration has directed the National Institutes of Health to study "regret" among people who receive gender-affirming care for the purpose of transitioning.
Matthew Memoli, who had been serving as interim NIH director until the beginning of April, sent an email to the directors of several NIH institutes two weeks ago, first obtained by Nature, stating that the Department of Health and Human Services “has been directed to fund research on a few specific areas” related to gender-affirming care — which the message incorrectly referred to as “chemical and surgical mutilation."
“This is very important to the President and the Secretary,” adds the email, in reference to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The HHS said in additional comment to the outlet that the “NIH is prioritizing research that serves the best interests of public health, not ideological agendas, and will continue to support studies that provide clear, objective data — particularly regarding the long-term effects of gender transitions.”
Human Rights Campaign Director of Communications Laurel Powell said that the focus on supposed regret is nothing more than "junk science" when the evidence overwhelming shows that gender-affirming care saves lives.
"Since Day 1, Secretary Kennedy and the entire administration have ignored the science and advanced their own agenda — whether it's mishandling measles cases in Texas, empowering vaccine-deniers at HHS, slashing research and HIV prevention funds, or now, peddling junk science instead of defending best-practice health care for transgender people," Powell told The Advocate. "Health care decisions for young people should be made by parents and doctors, not Robert F. Kennedy Jr."
Gender-affirming care is unambiguously beneficial
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the World Medical Association, and the World Health Organization all agree that gender-affirming care is evidence-based and medically necessary not just for adults, but minors as well.
Several studies demonstrate that depression and anxiety is alleviated in youth when they socially transition and receive treatment for gender dysphoria. Many other longitudinal studies show that gender-affirming care vastly improve quality of life for people who identify as transgender. Out of 55 peer-reviewed studies, not a single one which found that gender transition has negative outcomes.
Gender-affirming surgeries among minors are also incredibly rare. There is no evidence of surgeries being performed on trans youth under the age of 12, according to a recent study in JAMA, and only 2.1 out of every 100,000 trans youth ages 15 to 17 received surgery — the vast majority being chest surgeries.
Significantly more teenage girls get breast implants than trans teens get chest surgeries. Out of 151 breast reductions performed on American minors in 2019, 146 (97 percent) were performed on cisgender males, according to the JAMA study.
Regret is mainly due to anti-trans discrimination
Gender-affirming surgeries also have one of the lowest regret rates of any major surgery. Only 0.3 percent of transgender men and 0.6 percent of transgender women said they regret their gender-affirming surgery, according to a 2023 study from the National Library of Medicine. For those who choose to "detransition," 82.5 percent in a separate study in the National Library of Medicine cited "external factors" such as "pressure from family and societal stigma."
In contrast, a report from the American Journal of Surgery found that regret ranged from 0 to 47.1 percent for breast reconstructions, 5.1 to 9.1 percent for breast augmentations, and 10.82 to 33.3 percent for body contouring. Over 30 percent of patients experience regret following prostatectomy, and up to 19.5 percent following bariatric surgery.
Major life events also have significantly higher regret rates than gender-affirming surgery, as 7 percent of people regret having children and 16.2 percent regret getting tattoos.
