The Florida Board of Medicine has voted to ban “gender affirmative care” for transgender teens in the state.
The move will block access to puberty blockers and hormone therapies for minors to treat gender dysphoria. Those who receive the drugs for other reasons are exempt from this decision.
Board members said the decision was made based on the irreversibility of the drugs and the growing number of people choosing to ‘de-switch’.
It will apply to all teens in the state, even those currently being treated with the drugs.
Arizona already has similar restrictions. Alabama, Arkansas and Texas have tried to introduce similar rules but have been blocked by the courts.
dr. Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, asked the board to establish a standard of care for trans teens earlier this year.
Under the Ron DeSantis administration, Florida has been at the forefront of the trans debate in the US in recent months.
In August, the board of directors voted to approve an official “standard of care” in the state that would curb the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for trans teens.
The decision taken on Friday will now be passed on to the full medical board, which is likely to adopt the recommendations.
According to a report released earlier this year by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1.34 percent of teens in the state between the ages of 13 and 17 are trans.
A detransitioner at the Florida hearing said she’s glad she didn’t have surgery and that her gender-affirming concern led to developing PTSD, OCD, and a suicide attempt
Comments on the meeting included detransitioners
Advocates for the ban on trans care testified at the meeting, including de-transitioners.
One woman explained that she had been diagnosed with PTSD, OCD and even attempted suicide while taking testosterone while living as a trans man.
She said her mental health has improved since the transition, but she still has a disrupted menstrual cycle and other after-effects.
“I’m really thankful I never had surgery because I’m happily married and 28 weeks pregnant,” said one woman.
“But if I’d had the surgeries I wanted so badly as a teenager, it would have stolen this future from me.”
Some have warned that even if a person can reverse the transition, the impact the drugs will have on their hormones will last forever.
dr. Joseph Ladapo (pictured) asked the medical board to speak out on the trans issues over the summer and make Friday’s decision
This map shows the percentage of children between the ages of 13 and 17 who identified as transgender by state. The dark colors indicate a higher proportion of young. In New York and New Mexico it is no less than three percent
“The scientific evidence supporting these complex medical interventions is extremely weak,” Dr. Ladapo wrote in a June letter.
‘…there is great uncertainty about the effects of puberty blockers, sex hormones and surgery in young people with gender dysphoria.
“The current standards set by numerous professional organizations seem to follow a preferential political ideology rather than the highest level of generally accepted medical science.
Florida needs to do more to protect children from politically based medicine. Otherwise, children and adolescents in our state will continue to be at significant risk for long-term harm.”
Florida is one of several states that have considered limiting trans-state care for minors.
In Arizona, gender-confirming surgeries — such as breast reconstructions and surgery to remove or replace genitals — are prohibited.
A recent study from Vanderbilt University found that the number of breast reconstruction surgeries among trans youth had increased fivefold in recent years.
Alabama, Arkansas and Texas have all passed laws banning puberty blockers and hormone therapies for trans teens, though the warrants are being held in state courts.