Dr. Phil, America’s controversial prime-time TV psychologist, this week blasted the medical community for rushing to put gender-confused children on hormonal therapy or reassignment surgery.
Dr. Phillip McGraw, 73, said on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast that he was shocked that America’s leading pediatricians group had approved the treatments, despite countries such as Britain and parts of Europe restricting them over fears of long-term side effects.
He said: ‘It’s interesting that they choose words like gender-affirming care. It’s interesting that they call it that, but what they’re really talking about is hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery in children.
“All the major American medical associations have signed this… and I’ve never seen those organizations sign anything with less information about whether it will cause long-term harm to anything in my life.”
Data shows that between 2016 and 2020, approximately 3,600 children aged 12 and older in the US underwent gender confirmation surgery, including breast removal, genital realignments and facial reshaping.
The American Medical Association (AMA) supports gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, and has written to politicians opposing legislation that limits the options doctors and families have in making decisions for gender-diverse pediatric patients.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports gender-based treatments for children, and Dr. Brittany Allen, a member of the AAP’s LGBTQ executive committee, said doctors should consider puberty blockers and hormone therapy at appropriate ages for trans youth.
Guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) recommend hormone therapy for adolescent patients who have had a non-conforming gender identity for more than six months, who have undergone mental health treatment and “have the capacity to make medical decisions.”
Dr. Phil, who has a doctorate in psychology but has not been licensed to practice since 2006, went on to say that doctors were harming young people by rushing children into hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery.
He added: “I thought the deal was primarily about doing no harm. We cannot in good conscience say that this does not cause harm, because it does cause harm.’
The number of children identifying as transgender has increased, with diagnoses of gender dysphoria increasing and the number of children receiving hormone therapy also increasing.
A 2022 report from the Williams Institute, using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that 1.6 million Americans ages 13 and older identify as transgender — including 1.3 million adults and 300,000 youth.
Of all 13- to 17-year-olds, 1.4 percent identify as trans – the highest percentage among five different age groups ranging from 13 to 65 years old.
In the United States, the most teens identify as trans in New York (three percent) and the least identify as trans in Wyoming (0.6 percent).
A special 2022 report from Kimodo Health found that the number of gender dysphoria diagnoses among patients aged six to 17 nearly tripled between 2017 and 2021, from 15,170 to 42,160.
The chart above shows the number of insurance claims for gender dysphoria diagnoses in the US
The chart above shows the number of insurance claims for puberty blockers in the US
Similarly, the number of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria using puberty blockers increased from 633 in 2017 to 1,400 in 2021. Hormone therapy was used in 4,200 children aged six to seventeen who had previously been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, an increase over compared to 1,900 in 2017.
Another 2023 study found that the number of gender-affirming surgeries (GAS) has increased significantly in the US, with breast and breast surgeries being the most common.
The number of genital operations increased with age.
The study found that in 2020, 3,600 children between the ages of 12 and 18 underwent GAD annually.
The TV doctor blamed social media and the internet for the rise of children identifying as transgender, claiming exposure to content on the subject makes children want to “distinguish” themselves.
Dr. Phil said: “I think a lot of it is down to social media platforms and the internet… You read about it. You see it on social media. And, you think, well, this is how I can distinguish myself.
‘There is a social contagion effect. So that people can jump on the bandwagon. But they have done things that cannot be reversed. I find that really tragic.’
Dr. Phil continued, saying that teachers who support or try to help children struggling with their gender identity are not qualified and may hide the situation from a child’s parents.
The podcast’s host, Joe Rogan, added: “Do we even know them? You don’t know them… They could be insane. It is not that the threshold for teachers is that high.’
“You see a lot of these weird people teaching and you don’t necessarily want them to spend the rest of their lives advising kids about decisions.”
He also added that young children are impressionable and can be subject to suggestion.
Mr Rogan said: ‘And here’s an important point that people really need to take into account. There’s a reason they let little kids become suicide bombers – because you can talk kids into almost anything. You persuade them to believe in Sinterklaas.
‘You persuade children to believe in all kinds of ridiculous things because they are still very young. You can somehow easily convince them that they are many things: that they are queer, that they are transgender.
‘You can convince some children 100 percent of all kinds of things.’