On Friday, a joint committee of the state’s two medical boards took another step toward prohibiting gender-affirming care for transgender children in Florida.
Members of Florida’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine endorsed regulatory language that would prohibit children from taking hormones or having surgery to treat gender dysphoria.
Both boards will convene on November 4 to vote on the rule’s finalization.
The proposed legislation, which intends to define the state’s standard of care for gender dysphoria treatment, also provides an exemption for children who are participating in clinical investigations related to the treatment. There is also a provision that exempts youngsters who are already receiving therapy when the rule goes into effect.
Gender dysphoria is the discomfort or distress that some transgender people feel when their physically do not match their gender.
Gender-affirming care for adults and adolescents is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. Gender-affirming care for youngsters, according to medical professionals, seldom, if ever, entails surgery. Counseling, social transitioning, and hormone replacement treatment are more likely to be recommended by clinicians.
After a five-hour meeting in Orlando on Friday, the boards settled on the regulatory language, which featured testimony from six experts on gender-affirming care. More than a dozen public speakers, primarily in support of the ban, were also heard by the combined panel.
During the discussion, Board of Medicine member Patrick Hunter stated that he could not discover evidence of any sufficient research on youngsters who get gender-affirming treatments such as puberty-blocking drugs and surgery.
Hunter stated, “Those studies do not exist.” “Based on that, we don’t have high-quality evidence.”
The Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, on the other hand, cited multiple studies in March that demonstrate how gender affirming care enhances the general health and well-being of transgender children.
