Rigged report exposed: Utah review appears to defend child sex-altering drugs while ignoring sterility and sexual risk
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Do No Harm noted, for instance, that the review glossed over some of the worst, most life-changing effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, known as “puberty blockers,” and cross-sex hormones — namely infertility, sterility, and sexual dysfunction. While admitting that “infertility is a known risk,” the authors of the review didn’t bother including it as an outcome of focus in their report. The risk of sexual dysfunction, meanwhile, was apparently not mentioned once.
Extra to leaning heavily on low-quality scientific literature, much of which was observational and not trial-based, the review may have also been ideologically contaminated. After all, among the advisers who consulted on the project were Nikki Mihalopoulos, chief of the division of adolescent medicine for the department of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and Brooks Keeshin, a professor of pediatrics at the university. Both have written positively about “gender-affirming care” for minors in recent years.
Mihalopoulos co-authored a 2021 paper that stated, “Pediatric health care providers can play a critical role in building solutions in policy and advocacy … to improve the health of transgender/gender diverse youth. Many government entities, especially at the state and local level, actively resist efforts promoting equal rights.”
Keeshin wrote in an article published last year that “as states pass adolescent bans on gender-affirming care across the country, Utah offers a potential pathway forward in restrictive states to help maintain or open access to care.” Keeshin also suggested that some adolescents could benefit from radical sex-rejecting medical interventions.
Do No Harm concluded on the basis of these and other issues with the review that Utah lawmakers are better off turning to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ thorough and peer-reviewed report, which was released last month.
The federal HHS’ report underscored that “the harms from sex-rejecting procedures — including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations — are significant, long-term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked.”
Michelle Havrilla, Do No Harm’s director of programs, said in a statement, “This Utah Report is unreliable, unscientific, and fails to meet the standards of a systematic review.”
“The Report’s inaccuracies and bias diminish its credibility and allow left-wing activists to weaponize it for their political machinations. Utah legislators must not rely on a report that clearly undermines the safety and well-being of minors,” added Havrilla.
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