A group of scientists released a final version of a report that was published in May and ordered by President Donald Trump on the scientific basis of gender treatments for children.
The report, which passed scientific peer review, was issued on November 19, 2025, and is now available on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) website.
“[M]any U.S. medical professionals and associations have fallen short of their duty to prioritize the health interests of young patients” when they recommended medical gender treatments for gender dysphoria despite “a dearth of research on psychotherapeutic approaches” due to a “mischaracterization of such approaches as ‘conversion therapy,’ the report states.
“[D]issenting perspectives were marginalized, and those who voiced them were disparaged,” the report stated
Additionally, the report recommended ending the use of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and similar treatments for children and focusing more on psychotherapy until there is better scientific knowledge on the long-term effects of the medical interventions.
Authors Lean Democrat
Within days of being sworn in for his second term, Trump issued an executive order stating the United States “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.” The order led to the May report.
Transgender activists criticized the May report for not naming the authors, and alleged bias by the Trump administration against transgender-identifying people.
HHS said in its May release that it did not release the names of the report’s authors “to help maintain the integrity” of the peer review process.
None of the nine listed peer reviewers, including the American Psychiatric Association (APA), found major mistakes in the report’s findings. Leor Sapir, one of the report’s authors, told the New York Post that the APA did criticize the report for failing to explain its methodology and not consulting transgender-identifying individuals.
Sapir, a researcher at the Manhattan Institute, told the Post most of the authors were Democrats. This includes Alex Byrne, an MIT philosophy and linguistics professor who outed himself as an author in an op-ed in the Washington Post, and corroborated that most of the authors lean left.
There were eight reviewers, all from around the globe, including the former president of the Endocrine Society, Richard Santen, M.D., who said the report’s overall assessment of the relevant literature was “scientifically sound.”
Silencing the Critics
“You shouldn’t need peer review to tell you that mutilating children is bad medicine,” said American Principles Project Founder Terry Schilling.
The peer review process was not performed for legal reasons, but there was a reason for it, says Beth Parlato, a senior legal advisor for the Independent Women’s Law Center.
“In response to the critics who viewed the report as only a politically motivated policy effort, the addition of a peer review process reinforced and validated the report’s evidence-based scientific conclusions,” said Parlato.
The author’s leaning Democrat helps to further shut down the argument that the report is merely politically motivated, says Parlato.
“It absolutely helps the credibility of the report by undermining the argument that the report is partisan, said Parlato. “The activists can’t get around the fact that the conclusions are data-driven and not politically motivated,” reinforcing what the “Independent Women Law Center and countless medical experts have warned for years: surgical and chemical mutilation of minors is dangerous and built on zero long-term evidence,” said Parlato
Most ‘Damning Review’, Yet
“[The report is] the most scientifically comprehensive and damning review of pediatric gender medicine to date,” said Michelle Cretella, M.D., chair of the Adolescent Sexuality Committee of the American College of Pediatricians
Cretella said the fact that both “the authors and peer-reviewers were ideologically diverse, with a majority described as liberal,” undermines potential ad hominem attacks against the authors.
The “proverbial nail in the coffin of pediatric gender medicine” will be the HHS report and a lawsuit filed in December by Florida’s attorney general against WPATH, AAP, and the Endocrine Society, all of which support child gender transitioning, said Cretella.
“Sadly, when it comes to these financially lucrative procedures, medicine has not been able to clean up its own house,” said Cretella. “In my opinion, only litigation resulting in tremendous financial pain will win the day. In my opinion, this lawsuit will do it.”
Therapy Over Surgery
Cretella says the report’s recommendation to focus on therapy over physical interventions is a breakthrough.
“Pediatric gender dysphoria is a psychological phenomenon resulting from social contagion and, or underlying issues which are amenable to standard psychotherapy,” said Cretella. “Undo the social contagion and/or treat the underlying issues, and the gender dysphoria will resolve.”
What next?
What happens now in the clinical setting is the big question, says Parlato. “The report will no doubt influence medical practices to safeguard children from irreversible medical harm; however, the report is guidance, not a law,” said Parlato.
Congress will need to get involved, says Parlato. “Ideally, a federal law to protect children from cross-sex chemical and surgical procedures is needed,” said Parlato. “Currently, 26 states have such laws protecting children; however, a federal law is necessary to protect all children in all states.”
Schilling agrees that the report is good progress, but not enough. “President Trump has taken the first steps to exposing the bad science behind Big Trans, but Congress needs to follow suit,” said Schilling. “The only way we can stop the multi-billion dollar transgender industry for good is with a federal ban on child transition.”
There is no federal ban currently but Trump proposed a new rule in September, cutting funding to any hospitals that continue pediatric gender treatments.
Harry Painter ([email protected]) writes from Oklahoma.
Harry Painter ([email protected]) writes from Oklahoma.
