Sweden is backing away from transitioning to sexually confused minors – while the US is pushing forward
The National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) published its new guidelines for the treatment of minors struggling with sexual identity confusion: “Updated knowledge support for the care of gender dysphoria in young people.”
The new guidance continues Sweden’s departure from medical treatments – puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries – that attempt to make children appear as the opposite sex. Instead of medical interventions, the board encourages “psychosocial care” for gender-confused minors.
Board’s message lists three key issues with the previous guidelines: “insufficient scientific evidence”; the “unexplained increase” in people being diagnosed with gender dysphoria – especially 13- to 17-year-old teenage girls; and “the documented occurrence of conversion.”
Although the NBHW does not ban these procedures entirely, the board recommends that such treatments only be offered in exceptional circumstances, in clinical trials and where gender dysphoria is early onset, persistent and there is increased suffering due to the child’s sexual confusion.
The United States, meanwhile, continues to promote experimental, harmful medical drugs and procedures to young people. This push is coming from many quarters, including state and federal agencies; schools and teachers; and medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society.
The Swedish movement away from medical interventions from “handover” minors has come in stages.
In May 2021, the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) reported that Sweden’s Karolinska Hospital adopted a new policy that stopped the use of puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones for minors—except in clinical trials. These are powerful drugs that were not created for use with sexually confused minors.
Karolinska referred to a lack of evidence for “the long-term consequences of the treatments” and a lack of understanding of “the large influx of patients in recent years.” One unofficial translation in the policy, from SEGM, lists some of the risks of these medical interventions:
These treatments are potentially fraught with extensive and irreversible negative consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk and thrombosis.
The new policy stated:
- Hormone treatments (ie, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones) will not be initiated in patients with gender dysphoria under 16 years of age.
- For patients between 16 and 18 years of age, it is hereby decided that treatment may only take place within the clinical trial environments approved by EPM (Ethical Review Board/Swedish Institutional Review Board). The patient must be given comprehensive information about the potential risks of the treatment and a careful assessment of the patient’s level of maturity must be made to determine whether the patient is capable of making an informed decision about and consenting to the treatment.
Then, in February 2022, Sweden’s NHBW evaluated the available evidence and followed with similar recommendations, proverb:
The National Board of Health and Welfare’s overall conclusion is that the risks of puberty-inhibiting and gender-affirming hormone treatment for those under 18 today outweigh the possible benefits for the group as a whole.
Finally, the latest updated body of knowledge recommends surgery on minors with sexual identity confusion. The board concluded:
Similar to gender-affirming hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgical procedures have far-reaching and in some cases lifelong consequences for the individual. Several of the uncertainties that have led to the authority’s more restrictive recommendations on hormone treatment for minor patients also apply to gender-affirming surgical procedures.
The NBHW said that “gender confirmation surgery should not be performed before the age of 18.”
Meanwhile, the United States is moving forward with these harmful, experimental medical interventions. Earlier this year the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released recommendations for “Gender-affirming care and young people.” The guidelines state:
Gender-affirming care is a supportive form of health care. It consists of a range of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health and non-medical services for transgender and non-binary people.
A new California law allows courts to remove parents’ rights if their children come to the state to seek experimental and harmful puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and “sex reassignment” surgeries.
Educators have followed suit, with schools adopt “transgender people policy” where teachers, counselors and administrators work together with students to change their “gender identity” – without parental involvement.
And while countries like Sweden, Finland and England backing away from these procedures due to “insufficient scientific evidence”, medical organizations in the US ignore the risks and promote these aggressive, destructive procedures. Organizations that American Academy of Pediatrics and that Endocrine Society supports social and medical “transition” for children.
Instead of scientific evidence, these groups have been captured by radical gender ideology. Children struggling with sexual identity confusion deserve care and support to help them embrace their biological reality—not harmful procedures.
Related articles and resources:
American Academy of Pediatrics Promotes Sexual Confusion in Puberty Guide for Adolescents
UK’s ‘Gender Clinic’ faces civil suit
Respond to Transgender Issue: Parent Resource Guide
Transgenderism and minors: What does the research really show?
When Trans People Enter Your World: How Christians Can Respond with Compassion, Courage, and Truth
The world’s largest youth trans clinic is being shut down because of bad science
Photo from Shutterstock.