What the AAP Didn't Want Their Doctors to Hear

Photo of a group of professionals, mothers, and detransitioners at the 2024 AAP conference in Orlando, September 28-30. From left: January Lttlejohn, Abel Garcia, Pamela Garfield-Jaeger (author), Nicolas Blooms, Soren Aldaco, Erin Friday and Chloe Cole

A group of mothers, professionals, and harmed medical patients tabled a booth at the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) conference on September 28-30, 2024. We were there to express our concerns about the standards of care the AAP is promoting for youth with gender dysphoria. Currently, the AAP stands behind immediate gender identity affirmation and that puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries are medically necessary for youth who self-identify as transgender.

In an article from August 2023, the AAP declared that they have solid data to continue providing cross-sex hormones and surgeries to minors. The article quotes the AAP CEO/Executive Vice President, Mark Del Monte, “As part of its mission, the AAP will continue to ‘ensure young people get the reproductive and gender-affirming care they need and are seen, heard and valued as they are,’ Del Monte said.” J.D. Del Monte is not even a medical professional, he is a lawyer. This policy was initiated in 2018 and reaffirmed in 2023. Yet their data is flawed with small sample sizes, correlations conflated with causations, and no control group studies. Meanwhile, several European countries have shut down their gender clinics, including the UK’s Tavistock clinic, because patients were harmed and it was concluded that they did not have sufficient data to continue. Since the Tavistock shutdown, the Cass review was released. It is the most thorough and systematic report on Gender Affirming Care and it concluded that there is not enough evidence to continue social and medical transitioning children.

The seemingly conflicting data can make this topic appear unclear, but what is absolutely clear is the fact that there are thousands of patients out there who have been harmed by these practices and their voices are silenced. In fact, four of them were at the AAP conference to talk to doctors about their personal experiences and were asked to leave on the third day with no clear explanation. We were told someone from our group violated a rule last year, but they would not explain who that is and what rule was violated. (Only two individuals from our group were there last year with a different organization, so this is invalid). Detransitioners Booted from AAP conference via The Daily Wire.

Video shows a security officer telling January Littlejohn that our group had to immediately pack up and leave the premises without a clear explanation of why. January is a mother with a daughter who once believed she was trans, but no longer does. She is also a mental health professional.

Despite being asked to leave on the third day of the conference, we had two full days of productive conversations with doctors. Many were concerned with the direction gender medicine is going, and most didn’t know about the many harms puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones cause. Chloe Cole, a 20 year old woman, shared her story about being put on hormones at age thirteen and getting a double mastectomy at age 15, then having regret by age 16. Four years after stopping testosterone, she is still struggling with negative effects of hormones and surgeries. She doesn’t know if she can have kids, she is still having issues with her surgery scars and she has sexual function issues as a young woman. Yet, no doctor will help her. In fact, she is still documented as a male in her medical charts.

Soren Aldaco very bluntly described her experience, “You know when you get a really bad sunburn and your skin peels? Well that’s what it’s like down there when you take testosterone”. These are very intimate issues and filled with shame so its understandable that we don’t hear these stories being shared publicly. The entire medical and insurance industry is on board with transitioning minors with little caution, but do not help once there is regret and serious health issues arise from the treatments. These bold men and women were there to share their personal experiences and most doctors at the AAP conference heard the truth for the first time.

We introduced ourselves as a coalition of mental health organizations. That we believe in a wholistic approach to mental health that explores underlying issues, works collaboratively with parents, and looks at the patient as an individual. We continued by saying we hope that children are not rushed into one-size fits all medical interventions. Almost every doctor agreed. However, when we asked them how their clinic handles youth with gender issues, they most commonly said the child patients were affirmed in their gender identity and are put on hormones rather quickly. The doctors naively believed the child was getting appropriate treatment because they were receiving therapy, but when we prompted them to think more about what that therapy was about, they realized that it solidified the self-identity, rather than addressed co-morbidities.

I am a licensed clinical social worker with vast clinical experience with children and teens, so I explained how there could be so many psychological factors including trauma, autism, family issues and heavy consumption of the internet that could be playing a role. Many doctors who approached our table initially wanted to impress me by telling how accepting they are by using the preferred names and pronouns. I gently explained how influential instant affirmation is to an impressionable and vulnerable child who may be struggling with something else. Most doctors listened and then agreed. Some who spoke with us were defensive and afraid that we were anti-gay, but two people in our group are gay and explained how they felt transitioning is truly the new conversion therapy. Nicolas Blooms, a young man from a traditional Japanese family explained how his internalized homophobia led him to a trans identity. He is a talented artist and more feminine than the traditional men in his family, so he believed he should be a woman instead. He wished he had exploratory therapy, but instead, he was immediately affirmed by doctors and suffered greatly. His testimony is powerful and helped the doctors recognize that their empathy had been weaponized.

There were many themes among the doctors, but the main ones were:

1. Doctors are seeing a tremendous uptick in mental health issues and youth with gender dysphoria. They don’t know where to turn and are actively seeking additional help.

2. Doctors do not have enough time with their patients. Most said they get up to 30 minutes per patient, and some said they only get 15 minutes per patient.

3. Almost all of them had no idea of the physical and emotional impacts of cross-sex hormones on their patients.

4. Very few (maybe three?) had heard of the Cass Review.

5. Most follow what they are told by authority and give little thought to possible harms of their practices.

6. Most were open and curious to learn new information, but they are not getting it from the AAP and other institutions.

After reading these concerns, do you believe it is appropriate for doctors to medicalize children?

We were not there to be confrontational. We were there to help doctors understand an issue that has been heavily politicized and censored. The feedback was extremely positive. Those who were engaged got free copies of my book, A Practical Response to Gender Distress: Tips and Tools for Families. We also distributed several copies of A Time to Think by Hanna Barnes about the Tavistock clinic in the UK, and Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans: Tales from the Home Front to Save Our Kids.

The AAP made their position clear with their choice of keynote speaker, Rachel Levine, who promotes the sterilization of children. And the AAP made its bias even clearer when it ordered security to escort us out the building with no clear explanation. However, we will not stop speaking the truth because we simple care about the health and well being of children.

Pamela Garfield-Jaeger is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of clinical experience with adults and teens. Pamela was fired for not complying with the California state COVID vaccine mandate. Since then, she has dedicated herself to educate parents and help guide them through the complex mental health system and recognize the ideologically captured institutions. Pamela authored the book “A Practical Response to Gender Distress”, available on Amazon. She is active on Instagram as @the.truthfultherapist, twitter/x as @truththerapist, and her youtube channel is @thetruthfultherapist. You can book a consultation with her through her website, www.thetruthfultherapist.org.