Media

A press release distributed by ACCESS Newswire outlines SEGM’s upcoming conference, Rethinking Youth Gender Medicine: Charting a Path Forward, taking place November 5–7 in Washington, DC.

The three-day meeting will bring together clinicians, researchers, academics, ethicists, patients and parent advocates to examine the evidence, clinical uncertainty and future directions in youth gender medicine.

In a commentary for The Well News, SEGM co-founder Dr Will Malone explains why the Utah Review does not meet the methodological standards expected of a systematic review. It excluded more than 60% of eligible studies, omitted important outcomes including fertility, detransition and mortality, and did not assess the certainty of the evidence — a core step in systematic evidence review.

When scientific reviews are used to inform clinical guidance and public policy, methodological standards matter — particularly in areas of genuine uncertainty and debate.

The National Post examines WPATH’s recent legal arguments in response to a US lawsuit challenging its Standards of Care. In seeking dismissal of the case, WPATH argues that its recommendations constitute protected scientific opinion within an area of ongoing medical debate, and that individual clinicians remain responsible for evaluating and applying them. The article includes comments from SEGM, which describes this framing as a “remarkable humbling in attitude,” given the influential role WPATH’s Standards of Care have played in shaping clinical guidance and policy internationally.

In a new investigation for The Center Square, SEGM co-founder and pediatrician Dr. Julia Mason comments on North Carolina’s funding of the Charlotte Transgender Healthcare Group, whose provider directory includes clinicians offering “gender-affirming care” to children despite the state’s restrictions on medical transition for minors. Mason questions claims of competency in advising parents of babies and toddlers "disturbing."

In a guest column, SEGM co-founder Dr William Malone examines the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ recommendation against gender-related surgery for minors, placing it within a broader international shift toward more cautious, evidence-based care.

He also highlights SEGM’s role in bringing international evidence and clinical guidance into the US debate.

In this Physicians Weekly op-ed Roberto D’Angelo reflects on a shameful chapter in the history of mental healthcare: the decades during which medical professionals regarded homosexuality as a mental disorder and subjected homosexual patients to ineffective and harmful interventions, including electroshock therapy and chemical castration. He explores the profession’s current approach to working with young patients with gender dysphoria, questioning whether elements of this history are resurfacing.

Will Malone argues in his latest KevinMD article that the medical establishment's gradual self-correction in pediatric gender medicine is encouraging—exactly what should happen when clinicians follow the evidence, reassess prior assumptions, and adjust practice. Children deserve a medical system that is willing to learn and adapt, and to let evidence, not ideology, inform medical decisions.

Rekha Basu in her March 22 column opposes Iowa’s medical conscience bill permitting doctors to refuse to provide non-emergency medical treatments which violate their conscience due to religious or moral beliefs. She cites “abortion or gender-affirming surgery” as procedures that doctors must do or face discipline

To be a reliable tool, systematic reviews must provide unbiased recommendations about the efficacy of medical treatments based on a rigorous survey of potential harms, according to Dr. William Malone, the group’s co-founder. “When those standards aren’t met, the result isn’t clarity — it’s confusion dressed up as certainty."

The Department of Health and Human Services recently proposed a slate of regulations that would effectively ban hospitals from using puberty blockers for children, citing research that shows the drugs can cause irreversible harm. Activist groups decried the move, claiming that puberty blockers—when prescribed to children diagnosed with gender dysphoria—are reversible and merely pause development.