The Health and Human Services Department published an updated version of its report assessing the dangers of pediatric gender-transition medicine on Wednesday, adding external peer reviews as well as a list of the groundbreaking document’s authors.
The supplement to “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices” expanded on the May 1 report by incorporating nine peer reviews, including one from the American Psychiatric Association, nine replies to the reviews, and the names of the report’s nine contributors.
The department said the peer reviews confirmed or failed to undercut the initial report’s findings: that harms from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries “are significant, long-term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked.”
In what may not have been a coincidence, the supplement was unveiled by Adm. Brian Christine, the assistant secretary for health, who took the place of the Biden administration’s Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender official to win Senate confirmation.
“Today we are releasing nearly 200 pages of independent peer reviews that confirm the accuracy and integrity of our findings,” Adm. Christine said in a video post. “Around the world, countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden and Finland have already shifted course, emphasizing psychotherapy and mental-health support for children confused about their sex, and it is long time that we do the same in the United States.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society were invited to submit peer reviews but declined, the department said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took a swing Wednesday at the medical establishment’s defense of gender-transition treatment for minors.
“The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics peddled the lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement. “They betrayed their oath to first do no harm, and their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. That is not medicine — it’s malpractice.”
In its peer review, the American Psychiatric Association accused the report of being lopsided, saying there was “no indication that key stakeholders — namely, transgender individuals, their families, and clinicians — were consulted or that their perspectives were considered.”
The APA review added, “While the Report is clear about the potential harms of intervening medically, it does not apply any kind of rational scrutiny to potential harms that have been associated with withholding intervention, including higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicidality, and social withdrawal.”
The association and other reviewers also faulted the initial report for failing to include a full list of the authors and their potential conflicts, an omission that Wednesday’s supplement rectified.
Not surprisingly, the nine contributors drawn from the fields of medicine, bioethics, psychology and philosophy have expressed skepticism about the use of drugs and surgeries for minors seeking to adopt an opposite-sex identity.
The list included four medical doctors: Farr Curlin of Duke University, Kristopher Kaliebe of the University of South Florida, Kathleen McDeavitt of the Baylor College of Medicine and endocrinology specialist Michael Laidlaw.
There were two philosophy professors — Alex Byrne of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Moti Gorin of Colorado State University — as well as public intellectuals Leon Sapir, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute; and Yuan Zhang, founder of Evidence Bridge.
Also listed was Evgenia Abbruzzese, co-founder of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, a leading opponent of “gender-affirming care” that was listed last year as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Those defending the contributors’ credentials included Carole Hooven, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who said they are “not ideological cranks,” but “thoughtful researchers.”
“Their core finding — that the evidence for these interventions is highly uncertain — echoes the results of systematic reviews in other countries,” she wrote on X. “None of the peer reviews of the HHS report ultimately rebut that conclusion.”
The LGB Courage Coalition said the contributors took “real risks to their professional careers and personal safety” by letting their names be released in the current political climate.
“These authors were willing to question the status of the medical evidence and push scientific inquiry to function the way it must in order to safeguard young people,” said coalition co-founder Jamie Reed, a former pediatric gender-clinic staffer and whistleblower. “Their work affirms what many of us have seen firsthand: LGB youth deserve protection.”
Adm. Brian Christine, who replaced Adm. Rachel Levine as assistant secretary for health, announces the publication of the final, peer-reviewed version of the HHS report on pediatric gender dysphoria. https://t.co/nyl4TYwAsT
— Leor Sapir (@LeorSapir) November 19, 2025
Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said the report “marks a turning point for American medicine.”
“The evidence in it meticulously documents the risks the profession has imposed on vulnerable children,” Dr. Bhattacharya said in a statement. “At the NIH, we are committed to ensuring that science, not ideology, guides America’s medical research.”
In 2022, Adm. Levine defended gender-transition treatment as “medically necessary, safe, and effective for trans and nonbinary youth,” which Adm. Christine disputed.
“The prior administration and my predecessor, Rachel Levine, manipulated and betrayed vulnerable families. The Trump administration has the wheel now, and we will never, never abandon you,” Adm. Christine said in the video. “We are committed to gold-standard science, not a political agenda, and we are always guided by radical transparency.”
Mr. Byrne summed up the updates in an X post as “25 harsh critics and 7 supportive ones. Read the Supplement and make up your own mind.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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