A report released on Monday by the U.S.-based think tank Environmental Progress, alleges that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has supported “unethical” medical procedures in its advocacy for transgender health care.
According to Newsweek, medical professionals at WPATH were aware of at least one case of cancer thought to be associated with hormonal medication taken to aid gender transitioning. The report published hundreds of messages allegedly from an internal forum of members for WPATH in which gender-transition treatments and their complications were discussed.
The new report, known as the WPATH Files, comes to light as states debate whether or not to ban transgender treatment for minors. Among the messages in the Files is one by a physician who claims a colleague developed hepatocarcinomas, or liver tumors, after taking testosterone for almost a decade.
“To the best of my knowledge, it was linked to his hormonal treatment,” the message said. In 2020, researchers noted that a 17-year-old transgender man developed liver tumors after taking testosterone. That study was published in The Lancet. Another study, published last October, also cited cases of transgender individuals who had hormone therapies and developed liver tumors.
Michael Shellenberger, the founder and president of Environmental Progress, said that the leaks show that WPATH members “know that the so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ they provide can result in life-long complications and sterility and that the patients do not understand the implications.”
Those who promote gender-transition treatment say that denying care can worsen the mental health of those who feel trapped in the wrong body. Those who oppose say that the general rise in people with gender dysmorphia may be a part of a wider mental health crisis that should be identified and addressed before changing a person’s body.
Dr. Marci Bowers, president of WPATH, told Newsweek that it “is and always has been a science-and evidence-based organization whose recommendations are widely endorsed by major medical organizations around the world.
“We are the professionals who best know the medical needs of trans and gender diverse individuals —and stand opposed to individuals who misrepresent and de-legitimize the diverse identities and complex needs of the population through scare tactics.”
Besides the cases of liver cancer, the WPATH Files discuss injuries such as sterilization, loss of sexual function, and death among transgender individuals as well as those with serious mental illness and schizophrenia.
Shellenberger wrote: “The WPATH Files prove that gender medicine is comprised of unregulated and pseudoscientific experiments on children, adolescents and vulnerable adults and will go down as one of the worst medical scandals in history.”