FL DOH Press Sec. Slams State Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics for Supporting Double Mastectomies for Children
August 3, 2022 Updated 10:18 A.M. ET
TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for the Florida Department of Health, criticized the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics for supporting sex-reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers as methods of treatment for minors dealing with gender dysphoria.
Redfern Tweeted email screenshots from the Florida AAP urging people to support “gender-affirming care” as the Florida Board of Medicine plans to consider a proposal Friday to prohibit physicians from providing treatments such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sex-reassignment surgeries to youth.
“Dr. Lisa Gwynn and the FCAAP support double mastectomies on 14 year old girls with gender dysphoria. Notice how she never calls it what it is,” Redfern said. “This is eminence-based ideology. It’s not evidence-based medicine. Regardless of what she claims.”
The DeSantis Administration has been a long time critic of using surgeries like double mastectomies to treat gender dysphoria in minors.
“They will actually take a young boy and castrate the boy. They will take a young girl and do a mastectomy or they will sterilize her because of the gender dysphoria,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “This is wrong. Minors should not be having this type of stuff performed on them.”
The Florida Department of Health’s guidance against treatments transitioning minors said there is an “unacceptably high risk of doing harm.”
“…Encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm,” the guidance said.
“This week, the FBOM will discuss enacting an alternative standard of care that could limit or completely prohibit gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Florida,” an email screenshot from FCAAP said.
The FCAAP argue that treatments like puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgeries improves the mental health of youth.
“Appropriate gender-affirming care, conducted in close coordination with pediatricians and parents, is safe and effective for treating patients experiencing gender dysphoria,” said FCAAP President Lisa Gwynn.
The state proposed a rule earlier this month to prohibit Medicaid reimbursements for treatments including puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgeries. The proposal occurred after Florida Medicaid released a report that said research supporting sex reassignment treatment is “insufficient to demonstrate efficacy and safety.”
The proposed rule changes does not ban treatments for gender dysphoria. There are other comprehensive coverage of services for gender dysphoria including psychiatric services.
