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Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged healthcare providers and state medical boards to stop providing “dangerous” sex-change interventions to gender confused children in a letter Wednesday.

RFK told medical professionals to “read with care” HHS’s comprehensive review on child gender dysphoria that found minors who received puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex-change surgeries carried a “risk of significant harm,” the letter shows. RFK Jr. also urged doctors to make “necessary updates” to treatment protocols and retreat from using “harmful” child sex-change interventions.

“HHS expects you promptly to make the necessary updates to your treatment protocols and training for care for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria to protect them from these harmful interventions,” the letter says.

The May 2025 report, titled “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices,” found “weak evidence” to support the use of child sex-change interventions after a comprehensive review on current scientific literature supporting gender medicine. The report noted child sex-change treatments carried “potentially serious long-term effects” such as infertility, surgical complications, regret and sexual dysfunction.

The letter calls on the medical community to “avoid relying on” clinical guidance created by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), known as the Standards of Care Version 8 (SOC-8).

“Providers should avoid relying on the WPATH SOC-8,” RFK Jr.’s letter says. “As the Review documents in detail, the creation of SOC-8 was fraudulent and marked ‘a clear departure from the principles of unbiased, evidence-driven clinical guidance development.”

The SOC-8 recommends the use of irreversible medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, for children as young as 8 and is used to inform laws, healthcare coverage and clinical protocols for gender dysphoric children around the world. The clinical guidance controversially includes no age minimums for sex-change surgeries, such as a double mastectomy, insisting such procedures are “life-saving care.”

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WPATH didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has led an investigation into medical organizations promoting child sex-changes, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that as a physician he is very concerned that medical organizations continue pushing child sex-changes without scientific evidence.

“As a doctor, I am extremely concerned that medical organizations continue to push irreversible gender transition procedures for children against scientific data. I applaud President Trump’s strong leadership in telling providers directly that these dangerous practices must end,” said Dr. Cassidy. “As chair of the HELP Committee, I will continue to work with President Trump to protect America’s children from irreversible harm.”

RFK asked medical practitioners to consider their oath to “First, do not harm,” and ended the letter with a plea for the American healthcare community to follow the lead of European countries, such as England and Sweden, which now restrict minors from accessing medical child sex-changes in light of emerging scientific evidence of their harms.

“Again, I urge you to read the Review and expect you to update your treatment protocols and training to ensure our nation’s children are protected from harm,” the letter concludes.

Dr. Kurt Miceli, Medical Director at Do No Harm, told the DCNF that children with gender dysphoria deserve “evidence-based, high-quality care.” “Health care providers should not rely on an organization that suppresses evidence and has pushed a political agenda when it comes to caring for children with gender dysphoria.  For too long, vocal, activist doctors and medical associations have relied on WPATH guidance to inform treatment guidelines,” said Miceli. “Thankfully, the recent HHS report thoroughly highlighted the weak evidence WPATH used to justify so-called ‘gender-affirming care.’  In reality, sex-change procedures can cause devastating and often irreversible harms for the long-term development of minors–including infertility, surgical complications, cardiovascular disease, diminished bone density, and regret, to name a few. Children with gender dysphoria deserve evidence-based, high-quality care, not irreversible experimental interventions grounded in a political ideology.”

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