A former worker at a transgender clinic in the U.S. has spoken out against the practice of transitioning minors, revealing some of the alleged activities of such clinics, in a move that seems to be the first by a transgender center whistleblower, according to a report by Daily Citizen.
Jamie Reed, worked as a case manager for four years, at The Washington University Transgender Center (WUTC) at St. Lewis Children’s Hospital.
Earlier in her article in The Free Press, she described herself as a “42-year-old … queer woman, and politically to the left of Bernie Sanders.” She’s currently married to a “transman,” (that is a biological woman), Daily Citizen reported.
Reed claimed that as part of the transitioning treatment, clinics commonly prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for kids to prevent their normal sexual development, and then begin the development of the secondary sex characteristics of the opposite sex.
She stopped working at the clinic because she felt the practice was doing permanent harm to vulnerable patients, she revealed.
Reed said she decided to speak up against the "highly contentious issue," knowing that her testimony might be misused and it may put her " at serious personal and professional risk."
Her reaction, Reed said followed comments from Dr. Rachel Levine, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, that “clinics are proceeding carefully and that no American children are receiving drugs or hormones for gender dysphoria who shouldn’t.”
In her article, Reed wrote:
"I felt stunned and sickened. It wasn’t true. And I know that from deep first-hand experience.
She disclosed that she began working at WUTC, with the center’s “working assumption” that quick treatment of kids with gender dysphoria was better.
Reed stated :
"I left the clinic in November of last year because I could no longer participate in what was happening there.
"By the time I departed, I was certain that the way the American medical system is treating these patients is the opposite of the promise we make to “not harm.” Instead, we are permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care.
"Today I am speaking out. I am doing so knowing how toxic the public conversation is around this highly contentious issue—and the ways that my testimony might be misused. I am doing so knowing that I am putting myself at serious personal and professional risk.
"Almost everyone in my life advised me to keep my head down. But I cannot in good conscience do so. Because what is happening to scores of children is far more important than my comfort. And what is happening to them is morally and medically appalling.
Reed alleged that most of the patients that visited WUTC did so due to social and cultural influences, and not because they had actual gender dysphoria, which is a psychological feeling of being uneasy with their biological sex.
"One of my jobs was to do intake for new patients and their families. When I started there were probably 10 such calls a month. When I left there were 50, and about 70 percent of the new patients were girls. Sometimes clusters of girls arrived from the same high school.
She continued: "Frequently, our patients declared they had disorders that no one believed they had. We had patients who said they had Tourette syndrome (but they didn’t); that they had tic disorders (but they didn’t); that they had multiple personalities (but they didn’t).
"The doctors privately recognized these false self-diagnoses as a manifestation of social contagion. They even acknowledged that suicide has
an element of social contagion.
"But when I said the clusters of girls streaming into our service looked as if their gender issues might be a manifestation of social contagion, the doctors said gender identity reflected something innate," Reed noted.
She said that the people who came to WUTC had many other psychological problems including depression, anxiety, ADHD, as well as eating disorders, obesity, and autism.
Reed noted that the center claimed it has studies showing that children who claim to be gender dysphoric and proceed to do medical “transition,” “often wind up functioning psychosocially as well as or better than their peers.”
She, however, added that “No reliable studies are showing this.”
The former WUTC case manager also told the story of a WUTC doctor who testified in court against a father who opposed the desire of his child’s mother to “start their 11-year-old daughter on puberty blockers”
Reed wrote:
"I had done the original intake call, and I found the mother quite disturbing. She and the father were getting divorced, and the mother described the daughter as “kind of a tomboy.” So now the mother was convinced her child was trans.
"But when I asked if her daughter had adopted a boy’s name if she was distressed about her body if she was saying she felt like a boy, the mother said no. I explained the girl just didn’t meet the criteria for an evaluation.
"Then a month later, the mother called back and said her daughter now used a boy’s name, was in distress over her body, and wanted to transition.
"This time the mom and daughter were given an appointment. Our providers decided the girl was trans and prescribed a puberty blocker to prevent her normal development.
"The father adamantly disagreed, said this was all coming from the mother, and a custody battle ensued.
"After the hearing where our doctor testified in favor of transition, the judge sided with the mother."
Jamie Reed said she has since brought her concerns and documents to the attention of Missouri’s attorney general, stating that, "The safety of children should not be a matter for our culture wars."
"Given the secrecy and lack of rigorous standards that characterize youth gender transition across the country, I believe that to ensure the safety of American children, we need a moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria.
"In the past 15 years, according to Reuters, the U.S. has gone from having no pediatric gender clinics to more than 100. A thorough analysis should be undertaken to find out what has been done to their patients and why—and what the long-term consequences are…
"Some critics describe the kind of treatment offered at places like the Transgender Center where I worked as a kind of national experiment. But that’s wrong.
"Experiments are supposed to be carefully designed. Hypotheses are supposed to be tested ethically. The doctors I worked alongside at the Transgender Center said frequently about the treatment of our patients: “We are building the plane while we are flying it.” No one should be a passenger on that kind of aircraft," Reed concluded.
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