University of Washington Medicine Retracts Claim That "Gender-Affirming Care" Cures Depression in Teens Claiming to Be Transgender

"You can either have a live daughter or a dead son" (or, reverse the sexes) is the Body Choppers' favorite scripted line to pressure parents into allowing them to perform surgeries on children.

But what is the evidence for this claim? There should be some evidence, right?, in science?

But there is not.

Amid contentious debates over gender identity, the University of Washington Medicine, or UW Medicine, proudly and eagerly alerted the press of a study in mid-March indicating that transgender teen patients saw rates of depression "plummet" because of so-called "gender-affirming care."

The study earned nationwide praise. As Texas and Idaho were debating bans on allowing children to receive cross-sex hormones, this was the perfect research to show the heartlessness of conservative lawmakers and pundits who declared puberty blockers and surgical intervention as a dangerous and potentially irreversible gamble.

Most dramatically, after tracking the mental health of 104 transgender-identifying patients aged 13 to 20 for a year at Seattle Children's Hospital, "gender-affirming care was associated with a 60% reduction in depression and a 73% drop in harmful or suicidal thoughts among the participants."

But the study didn't actually say what was initially claimed. Some voices now accuse the researchers of purposefully misinterpreting data to promote the irreversible.

UW Medicine's communications department seemingly unintentionally misinterpreted the study. But their unwillingness to proactively correct the record was part of a concerted effort to downplay their errors because they had already received positive press, according to emails I uncovered through a public disclosure request.

...

Independent journalist Jesse Singal started posing questions about the study to UW Communications staff, and one of the study's authors, who agreed to speak on background, confirmed that some of the data the researchers presented, along with their claims, did not add up.

"Among the kids who went on hormones, there isn't genuine statistical improvement here from baseline to the final wave of data collection," Singal wrote on his Substack. "At baseline, 59% of the treatment-naive kids experienced moderate to severe depression. Twelve months later, 56% of the kids on GAM [gender-affirming medicine] experienced moderate to severe depression. At baseline, 45% of the treatment-naive kids experienced self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Twelve months later, 37% of the kids on GAM did."

In other words, there was no statistically significant improvement. At best, the authors could argue that wrong-sex hormones and trans surgeries did not make these children's depression worse than it already was.

Read the whole thing. While UW Medicine has deleted their false claim, they have not reached out to any media organizations to publicize the retraction and tell them what the truth is.

The initial falsehood they told may or may not have been innocent. (I have my doubts.)

But the decision to allow the the lie to stand is deliberate. This is "The Science (TM)" spreading a known lie.

The Fauci Effect, in other words.

Meanwhile, despite now being swatted three times by trans extremists, Marjorie Taylor-Greene is determined to have a vote on outlawing trans surgeries and treatments for minors.

The Fake Opposition GOP of course will not get behind this. They don't want to... alienate the Suburban Wine Moms who are already voting against them 3:1.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is standing firm in her bid to ban transgender surgeries and "gender-affirming" care on minors despite a very public and potentially violent campaign against her effort.

In a digital reelection campaign with national implications, Greene today called on the Republican Party to join her and 19 co-sponsors of her "Protect Children's Innocence Act" and challenge Biden administration officials who have suggested that even 13-year-olds should be eligible for sex-changing drugs and operations.

"We're not even a party worth deserving of the American people's votes if we cannot protect children from this horrific child abuse," she says in the opening of the ad.

The ad then morphs to Rachel Levine, the transgender assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, who said, "Gender-affirming care is life-saving."

Greene, who was "swatted" at her home three times last week by opponents of her plan, is daring critics to take further action with her ad. In the swatting cases, Greene believes her critics hoped that police would mistake her for a violent criminal and "kill me."

Her ad below.

posted by Ace at 01:12 PM

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