The number of gender dysphoria diagnoses increased in nearly every state in the country between 2018 and 2022 as efforts to clamp down on body-mutilating procedures billed by supporters as “necessary treatments” gained steam, according to a report.
A report compiled by Definitive Healthcare and released this month documents the rise in gender dysphoria diagnoses on a state-by-state basis from 2018 through 2022. The report, written from a point of view that supports so-called “gender-affirming care,” which involves prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or body-disfiguring cosmetic surgeries, such as castration and double mastectomies, found that gender dysphoria diagnoses increased in every state except South Dakota during the four-year period.
Virginia recorded the largest increase in patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria (274%) followed by Indiana (247%), Utah (193%), Alaska (183%), South Carolina (171%), Delaware (170%), Kansas (147%), Colorado (145%), Washington (145%), Maine (135%), Nebraska (134%), Georgia (132%), Minnesota (122%), Washington, D.C. (122%), Vermont (116%), Rhode Island (114%), Kentucky (112%), North Carolina (109%), Massachusetts (108%), Wyoming (107%) and California (102%).
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the number of people diagnosed with gender dysphoria dropped by 23% in South Dakota.
The smallest increases in gender dysphoria diagnoses were recorded in Hawaii (6%), Connecticut (10%), Iowa (30%), Florida (35%), Arkansas (42%) and Oklahoma (49%).
The report also included data suggesting that the impact of bans on trans procedures for minors resulted in a decline in gender dysphoria diagnoses between 2021 and 2022: “Florida diagnoses rose steadily from 2018 until 2021, then they dropped 16% through the end of 2022 ahead of the passing of a trans care ban in 2023,” the report stated. “North Dakota diagnoses likewise grew from 2018 to 2021, before dropping 11% from 2021 to 2022 ahead of its youth trans care ban in April 2023.”
The report highlighted similar drops in diagnoses of gender dysphoria from 2021 to 2022 in Iowa (14%), Nebraska (5%) and Montana (3%) ahead of the implementation of restrictions on gender transition procedures in those states. The other states that have enacted similar measures either legislatively or through executive action include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Although the report claims that “nearly every mainstream medical organization asserts that gender-affirming healthcare, including mental health services and hormone therapy, improves transgender folks’ quality of life and constitutes medically necessary care,” critics of the procedures cite concerns about their long-term impacts as the justification for enacting state laws banning minors from obtaining puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and body-mutilating surgeries.
The American College of Pediatricians has listed the side effects of puberty blockers as including “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment, and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility.” The organization identifies potential long-term impacts of cross-sex hormones as “an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers.”
Jamie Reed, a former employee at a pediatric gender clinic at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote an op-ed for The Free Press last year elaborating on the side effects experienced by some of the minors prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. In one case, a 17-year-old girl who was prescribed testosterone experienced severe vaginal bleeding that “soaked through an extra heavy pad, her jeans, and a towel she had wrapped around her waist.”
“We found out later this girl had intercourse, and because testosterone thins the vaginal tissues, her vaginal canal had ripped open,” Reed wrote. “She had to be sedated and given surgery to repair the damage. She wasn’t the only vaginal laceration case we heard about.”
In another case, a trans-identified female patient at the clinic who was prescribed testosterone developed an “enlarged clitoris” that “extended below her vulva” and “chafed and rubbed painfully in her jeans.” While the clinic advised the girl to wear “compression undergarments worn by biological men who try to pass as female,” Reed concluded that the girl had been harmed by the clinic: “we hurt this kid.”
As for so-called sex-change surgeries, images shared by the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year showed the unsightly scars left behind from the removal of healthy breasts from trans-identified girls and the removal of forearm tissue to create fake, flaccid penises that cannot function.
Chloe Cole, a prominent detransitioner who once identified as a boy, attributed the suicidal thoughts she experienced as a teen to the double mastectomy she underwent as a minor. Cole maintains that the drugs and procedures she underwent left her with “deep physical and emotional wounds, severe regrets, and distrust of the medical system.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
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