{"id":1622536,"date":"2022-08-26T08:02:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T12:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1622536"},"modified":"2022-08-26T08:02:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T12:02:57","slug":"after-proclaiming-the-opposite-medical-pros-quietly-admit-mutilating-trans-kids-doesnt-fix-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/after-proclaiming-the-opposite-medical-pros-quietly-admit-mutilating-trans-kids-doesnt-fix-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"After Proclaiming The Opposite, Medical Pros Quietly Admit Mutilating Trans Kids Doesn\u2019t Fix Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fafter-proclaiming-the-opposite-medical-pros-quietly-admit-mutilating-trans-kids-doesnt-fix-depression%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1622536&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>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 \u201cplummet\u201d because of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/19\/gender-affirming-care-is-the-opposite-of-gender-affirming-and-caring\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">so-called<\/a> \u201cgender-affirming care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Most dramatically, after tracking the mental health of 104 transgender-identifying patients aged 13 to 20 for a year at Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital, \u201cgender-affirming care was associated with a 60% reduction in depression and a 73% drop in harmful or suicidal thoughts among the participants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the study didn\u2019t actually say what was initially claimed. Some voices now accuse the researchers of purposefully misinterpreting data to promote the irreversible.<\/p>\n<p>UW Medicine\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>The original press release was sent on March 11 and claimed that \u201cgender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary adolescents caused rates of depression to plummet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By April 8, UW Medicine communications staff dramatically changed the claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Independent journalist Jesse Singal started posing questions about the study to UW Communications staff, and one of the study\u2019s authors, who agreed to speak on background, confirmed that some of the data the researchers presented, along with their claims, did not add up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmong the kids who went on hormones, there isn\u2019t genuine statistical improvement here from baseline to the final wave of data collection,\u201d Singal <a href=\"https:\/\/jessesingal.substack.com\/p\/researchers-found-puberty-blockers?s=r\">wrote on his Substack<\/a>. \u201cAt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s depression <em>worse<\/em> than it already was.<\/p>\n<p>Laura East, Department of Epidemiology spokeswoman, emailed colleagues that Singal posted \u201csome pretty concerning claims.\u201d However, she wrote that UW Medicine should not respond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs there is an overwhelming amount of positive coverage of the study\u2019s findings, I don\u2019t believe there\u2019s a need for a proactive response beyond continuing to monitor, but welcome your ideas for any other actions or messaging with the study team. Happy to jump on a call too, if that\u2019s easier,\u201d East said.<\/p>\n<p>One UW Medicine staffer acknowledged that, at worst, the research was \u201cmade up\u201d yet did not want to engage because it had already received \u201cextremely positive\u201d coverage. At Seattle Children\u2019s, a staffer won\u2019t respond to reasonable criticisms that could affect its patients and their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Kym Ahrens, an assistant professor in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital and UW Medicine, is one of the study\u2019s authors and was on an email chain with the communications staff. After initially writing a draft statement to clarify the findings, she offered an alternative plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it gives too much attention to clarify at all, I am also very open to not responding,\u201d she suggested via email.<\/p>\n<p>Ahrens did not respond to a request for comment to clarify her intent.<\/p>\n<p>The pressure was mounting, and emails show that it became clear to the staff that they were wrong. They finally made edits to their press release on April 8, nearly a month after the positive coverage was broadcast and posted. The revisions were dramatic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUW researchers recently found that gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary adolescents likely mitigated rates of depression and suicidality,\u201d the press release claimed in a significant departure from declarations of \u201cplummeting\u201d depression rates.<\/p>\n<p>But UW Medicine admits it never reached out to media outlets that reported the incorrect data.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUW Medicine did not proactively reach out to any media outlet to correct the information, however, we made the correction to our newsroom website and called out that a correction had been made,\u201d a spokesman said via email to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. \u201cWhen we distribute press releases on research conducted at UW Medicine, we always link to the original research within the release so that media not only see how we presented the information but have access to the source information. We appreciate that the error was brought to our attention so that we could make that correction on our website and provide the updated language to any media who inquired about the study from that point forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The spokesman clarified that UW Medicine didn\u2019t reach out because \u201cthe transgender research was no longer a news story\u201d and that the edits wouldn\u2019t have changed the positive news coverage.<\/p>\n<p>But it should have.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The study itself is concerning. The findings, and subsequent interviews and postings by some researchers, seem intentionally misleading. And as Singal pointed out, due to a lack of available data, parts of the study are unnecessarily difficult to understand.<\/p>\n<p>This study promotes the irreversible genital mutilation of impressionable children and suggests that it <em>might <\/em>alleviate their depression. Media coverage of this study could influence parents to seek out these procedures for their children, and it convinces medical professionals to keep their concerns private.<\/p>\n<p>This sets up patients for possible failure, prevents honest inquiry into what the data says, and can unduly influence laws under debate. The inaccurate press release has real-world consequences.<\/p>\n<p>So why is there disinterest in pursuing and publicizing corrections? It appears the study was agenda-driven from the start.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The study\u2019s authors appear to have wanted data to back up their preconceived notions and preferred worldview, and corporate media outlets and progressive reporters wanted the study\u2019s incorrect findings to be true.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Jason Rantz is a Seattle-based talk show host on KTTH Radio and a frequent guest on FOX News. Follow him on Twitter @JasonRantz and subscribe to his podcast.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1622536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1622536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1622536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1622536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1622536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}