Florida removes clinical trial exemption for puberty blockers

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Florida medical boards approved a rule to prohibit minors from receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery to treat gender dysphoria Friday.

The vote came during a joint meeting between the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine.

During a November 2022 meeting, the boards differed on how to regulate minors who have already begun undergoing treatment with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. At that time, the Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted to allow those treatments to continue if they were part of an IRB approved clinical trial, and the Board of Medicine voted against the exception.

However, the Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted to remove the exemption to match the Board of Medicine on Friday, Feb. 10.

The boards heard hours of public comment, along with comment from those who requested the hearing.

Simone Chriss, Director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel said she is “ashamed” that people in power would go against the transgender community for “political gain.”

“And doing so under the guise of protecting children is particularly insidious, given that we know based on over the overwhelming weight of evidence and science, that access to treatment for gender dysphoria is safe, effective, and medically necessary, and stripping children in Florida of access to that care harms them, it in no way, protects them,” Chris said.

Florida Board of Medicine board member Dr. Hector Vila, M.D. responded to Chriss and said there is not adequate evidence to support the use of the therapies, and they should not be used due to the irreversible harm.

“This board has reviewed hundreds of studies, we talk to doctors, we’ve received testimony from both sides of this issue, and the overwhelming data does not support,” he said.

One speaker backed the board’s rules: “Giving minor children puberty blocking drugs and cutting off healthy body parts is inhumane, child abuse. Please adopt this rule.”

In November 2022, the boards met and approved rules that would ban minors from receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery to treat gender dysphoria.

Following the publication of the rules, requests for a “rule hearing” were received by both boards, prompting Friday’s meeting, said Paul Vasquez, executive director of the Florida Board of Medicine.

“The Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine are apolitical bodies that have the primary mission of protecting the people of the state of Florida,” Vasquez said on Friday.

“As with any issue before the boards, the board members will look to the available science and appropriate standard of care, while putting aside any personal feelings they may have on the issues before them today,” he explained.

In June, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo asked the Florida Board of Medicine to look at the findings and establish a standard of care for the “complex and irreversible procedures.”

He has recommended against certain pharmaceutical, non-pharmaceutical and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria. He cited a lack of conclusive evidence and “long-term irreversible harms” from the treatments.

The board previously heard testimony from people at the meeting in support of and against the rule, before the initial vote.