Doctors profited from fraud and mutilation in minor trans treatments: HHS report

Clementine Breen was only 14 years old when she underwent a double mastectomy.Breen was put on puberty blockers at age 12 after she expressed discomfort with her changing body and started questioning her sex.By 13, with the help of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, she was on testosterone, chemically altering her body to resemble a boy.

The mastectomy, at 14, was simply the next stop on a treatment track she’d been riding since she was barely old enough to understand what any of it meant or the lifelong complications she might face.At 18, Breen transitioned back to her biological sex after receiving therapy for childhood sexual abuse.But seeking care for her detransition brought scrutiny instead of support: a breast reconstruction consultation turned into repeated questioning of her psychological stability — scrutiny she did not face when requesting a mastectomy at 14 — and one of her former doctors cut off communication entirely once he learned she was transitioning back.Breen still lives with complications from the interventions she underwent as a teenager.She has irregular, untrackable menstrual cycles, severe cramps and hormonal instability, chest pain during menstruation, and vaginal atrophy requiring topical estrogen.

One OB-GYN admitted that no standard care plan exists for someone with her history.Breen’s story is one of thousands.Children steered toward irreversible medicalization on the promise it would fix them and then left to face the damage alone.As physicians ourselves, we cannot read Breen’s story without thinking of the oath we took at the beginning of our careers, one built on the basic principle that a doctor’s first duty is to do no harm.That oath is meant to guide every care decision and ensure patients can trust that doctors have their best interests at heart, especially, as in Breen’s case, when the patient is too young to fully understand the decisions being made for her.Ye...