On November 9, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a report advancing the disproven theory that gender-affirming care for transgender youth does more harm than good. The report, “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices,” criticizes gender-affirming care as “pediatric sex-rejecting procedures.” The report is a continuation of a study published in May by HHS, which experts considered extremely flawed and which did not include a list of contributors’ names. According to an initial peer review statement from the American Psychiatric Association, “The Report fails to clearly articulate how the studies were selected, what criteria governed their inclusion or exclusion, or how their quality was assessed.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the report, saying that “so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” and calling it “malpractice” without providing any evidence to support his claims. In response, The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a joint statement saying, “We reject characterizations of our approach to gender-affirming care as negligent or ideologically driven. These claims, rooted in politics and partisanship, misrepresent the consensus of medical science, undermine the professionalism of physicians, and risk harming vulnerable young people and their families.”