By Doug Mainwaring, Lifesite News. (Photo: Olga DeLawrence/Unsplash)
Dr. Venk Murthy criticized a recent decision by the University of Michigan Faculty Senate to resume cross-sex hormones, surgeries, and puberty blockers for patients under 19 years old.
A longtime cardiologist and professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Michigan warns that mounting scientific evidence, legal concerns, and public opinion should lead healthcare providers to cease providing so-called “gender-affirming care” for kids.
In a commentary penned for the Independent Women’s Forum’s IWFeatures, Dr. Venk Murthy argues that a recent decision by the University of Michigan Faculty Senate to resume cross-sex hormones, surgeries, and puberty blockers for patients under 19 years old “places our institution at odds not only with emerging international scientific consensus but also with broader public sentiment — and, crucially, with the precautionary approach now adopted by health authorities in several European nations, as well as our own.”
“Michigan Medicine’s pause on ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors was prudent, not only scientifically but legally,” wrote Dr. Murthy. A DOJ probe “reflects growing scrutiny of practices once promoted as unequivocally beneficial. While major U.S. medical organizations continue to endorse ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, the evidence base for these interventions in children and adolescents is increasingly recognized as weak.”
Murthy noted the landmark 2024 Cass Review which found that “most studies backing ‘gender-affirming care’ to be of low quality, with insufficient long-term data on outcomes like mental health improvement, rates of detransition, or risks such as bone density loss, infertility, and potential cancer links.”
The Michigan cardiologist also referred to a comprehensive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report, “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices,” which found there are “significant, long term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked” harm that is done by “puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations.”
“These interventions carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret,” the report also noted.