# The Liberal Misinformation Bubble About Youth Gender Medicine  ## Metadata - Author: [[Helen Lewis]] - Full Title: The Liberal Misinformation Bubble About Youth Gender Medicine - Category: #articles - Summary: insert summary - My notes: - Summary: Many claims supporting puberty blockers and hormones for youth lack strong evidence. Some medical groups have hidden doubts about these treatments. Court cases have revealed these issues and sparked important questions. - URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/transgender-youth-skrmetti/683350/?gift=KkbsgAqgmImeUM71Y0bfDPq00DkEVN3jlt2gpN_8uhc - Source File: web-only ## LLM Chats ## NotebookLM ## LLM Audio ## Highlights > This isn’t just a matter of U.S. health providers skimping on talk therapy to keep costs down; some practitioners view long evaluations as unnecessary and even patronizing. “I don’t send someone to a therapist when I’m going to start them on insulin,” Olson-Kennedy told *The* *Atlantic* in 2018. Her published [research](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/12/06/americas-best-known-practitioner-of-youth-gender-medicine-is-being-sued) shows that she has referred girls as young as 13 for double mastectomies. And what if these children later regret their decision? “Adolescents actually have the capacity to make a reasoned logical decision,” she [once told](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TrNE8a53dI) an industry seminar, adding: “If you want breasts at a later point in your life, you can go and get them.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jyy5pemkcra7zpt5s1h7r2qn)) > Last month, her study finally appeared as a [preprint](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.25327614v1), a form of scientific publication where the evidence has not yet been peer-reviewed or finalized. Its participants “demonstrated no significant changes in reported anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, somatic complaints, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, aggressive behavior, internalizing problems or externalizing problems” in the two years after starting puberty blockers. (I have requested comment from Olson-Kennedy via Children’s Hospital Los Angeles but have not yet heard back.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jyy5xzsjfwn1v1dxxvtt36yw)) > Can this misinformation bubble ever be burst? On the left, support for youth transition has been rolled together with other issues—such as police reform and climate activism—as a kind of super-saver combo deal of correct opinions. The 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has [made](https://www.nysun.com/article/breakout-new-york-mayoral-contender-zohran-mamdani-wants-to-spend-65-million-on-medical-gender-treatments-for-minors-and-adults?member_gift=CUZ5qwd3crq4pmz-xrd) funding gender transition, including for minors, part of his pitch to be New York’s mayor. But complicated issues deserve to be treated individually: You can criticize Israel, object to the militarization of America’s police forces, and believe that climate change is real, and yet still not support irreversible, experimental, and unproven medical treatments for children. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jyy672crtchzrk1d1g3nv54a)) > Can this misinformation bubble ever be burst? On the left, support for youth transition has been rolled together with other issues—such as police reform and climate activism—as a kind of super-saver combo deal of correct opinions. The 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has [made](https://www.nysun.com/article/breakout-new-york-mayoral-contender-zohran-mamdani-wants-to-spend-65-million-on-medical-gender-treatments-for-minors-and-adults?member_gift=CUZ5qwd3crq4pmz-xrd) funding gender transition, including for minors, part of his pitch to be New York’s mayor. But complicated issues deserve to be treated individually: You can criticize Israel, object to the militarization of America’s police forces, and believe that climate change is real, and yet still not support irreversible, experimental, and unproven medical treatments for children. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jyy672k2j3shn8xswvq76xgt)) > Can this misinformation bubble ever be burst? On the left, support for youth transition has been rolled together with other issues—such as police reform and climate activism—as a kind of super-saver combo deal of correct opinions. The 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has [made](https://www.nysun.com/article/breakout-new-york-mayoral-contender-zohran-mamdani-wants-to-spend-65-million-on-medical-gender-treatments-for-minors-and-adults?member_gift=CUZ5qwd3crq4pmz-xrd) funding gender transition, including for minors, part of his pitch to be New York’s mayor. But complicated issues deserve to be treated individually: You can criticize Israel, object to the militarization of America’s police forces, and believe that climate change is real, and yet still not support irreversible, experimental, and unproven medical treatments for children. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jyy672qxwzn37g01h492k0fz)) > Acknowledging the evidence does not mean that you also have to support banning these treatments—or reject the idea that some people will be happier if they transition. Cass believes that some youngsters may indeed benefit from the medical pathway. “Whilst some young people may feel an urgency to transition, young adults looking back at their younger selves would often advise slowing down,” her report [concludes](https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20250310143933/https:/cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/). “For some, the best outcome will be transition, whereas others may resolve their distress in other ways.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jyy69dj20etxa5g603swdv48))