Staff Reports
Jamie Reed, a former case manager at St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s Washington University Transgender Center, resigned from her role after serving for three years, citing concerns about the manner in which the clinic was handling vulnerable patients. In a piece published in The Free Press on Thursday, Reed wrote that the clinic was hastening children towards irreversible sex change treatments, frequently disregarding the objections of parents. She pointed out that Missouri law only mandates the consent of one parent for minors to undergo these procedures, and in instances where parents did not agree, the clinic appeared to always take the side of the parent who desired the child to undergo a gender transition.
Jamie Reed is a progressive. She is a queer woman married to a transman. She has devoted her career to the vulnerable.
Which is why she joined the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital four years ago.
Today she is blowing the whistle.https://t.co/C08n30n1hh
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) February 9, 2023
Reed recalled one case in which a mother suspected her 11-year-old daughter was transgender and called the clinic. Despite the child not having adopted a male name or expressing distress about her body, the clinic determined she was transgender and put her on puberty blockers. This led to a custody battle between the mother and father, with a clinic doctor testifying in favor of transition and the judge siding with the mother.
Reed expressed concern that parents and patients were not being fully informed of the side effects of cross-sex drugs, which can cause infertility, liver toxicity, painful clitoral enlargement and vaginal laceration. She noted that many of the new patients were girls with sudden onset gender issues or children with mental health issues and that social contagion may have been at play.
Reed called for the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria to be halted and for the U.S. to follow the path of the U.K., which shut down its massive pediatric gender clinic following an in-depth investigation that found insufficient safeguarding of children and plans to replace it with smaller clinics focused on mental health counseling. Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley pledged to investigate the clinic Thursday morning.
The Washington University Transgender Center did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Jamie Reed’s experience at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital has raised serious questions about how medical professionals are treating vulnerable patients. After working at the clinic for three years, Reed left her position due to concerns that doctors were rushing children onto irreversible sex change medications without fully informing them or their parents of the potential side effects.
Reed recalled one case in which a mother suspected her 11-year-old daughter was transgender and called the clinic. Despite the child not having adopted a male name or expressing distress about her body, the clinic determined she was transgender and put her on puberty blockers. This led to a custody battle between the mother and father, with a clinic doctor testifying in favor of transition and the judge siding with the mother.
Reed noted that many of the new patients were girls with sudden onset gender issues or children with mental health issues and that social contagion may have been at play. She expressed concern that parents and patients were not being fully informed of the side effects of cross-sex drugs, which can cause infertility, liver toxicity, painful clitoral enlargement, and vaginal laceration.
In response to Reed’s article in The Free Press, Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley pledged to investigate the clinic Thursday morning. Reed called for the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria to be halted and for the U.S. to follow the path of the U.K., which shut down its massive pediatric gender clinic following an in-depth investigation that found insufficient safeguarding of children and plans to replace it with smaller clinics focused on mental health counseling.
The Washington University Transgender Center did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. However, Reed’s experience has raised important questions about how medical professionals are treating vulnerable patients, particularly when it comes to irreversible sex change medications. It is clear that further investigation is needed in order to ensure that all patients are receiving proper care and treatment
The preceding article is a summary of an article that originally appeared on The Daily Caller
