Reuters: Number of children seeking 'gender-affirming care' surges in the US

It was late last month that the Heritage Foundation filed an official ethics complaint against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over defamatory — and inflammatory — remarks that AOC made about Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik. At a hearing, AOC accused Raichik of lying when she claimed Boston Children’s Hospital was offering “gender-affirming hysterectomies” to young girls. As usual, Raichik got her information directly from the Boston Children’s Hospital gender clinic and videos it had posted to advertise its services. But reposting those publicly available videos was “stochastic terrorism.”

USA Today shocked no one when it reported that a national LGBTQ youth advocacy group found that young people are coming out as transgender at younger ages, with one in 10 having come out before age 13. And of course, the race is then on to administer puberty blockers so the child doesn’t go through “forced puberty.” This gender-affirming care is “life-saving.”

Now Reuters is reporting that the number of children seeking gender-affirming treatment has surged in recent years in the U.S.

Source: https://t.co/kmk3ep58uD

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Nearly three times as many children ages 6 to 17 were diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021 than in 2017. But no, it’s not social contagion. Reuters reports:

Thousands of children in the United States now openly identify as a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth, their numbers surging amid growing recognition of transgender identity and rights even as they face persistent prejudice and discrimination.

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Reliable counts of adolescents receiving gender-affirming treatment have long been guesswork – until now. Reuters worked with health technology company Komodo Health Inc to identify how many youths have sought and received care. The data show that more and more families across the country are grappling with profound questions about what type of care to pursue for their children, placing them at the center of a vitriolic national political debate over what it means to protect youth who identify as transgender.

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Gender-affirming care for youths takes several forms, from social recognition of a preferred name and pronouns to medical interventions such as hormone therapy and, sometimes, surgery. A small but increasing number of U.S. children diagnosed with gender dysphoria are choosing medical interventions to express their identity and help alleviate their distress.

These medical treatments don’t begin until the onset of puberty, typically around age 10 or 11.