14,000 Minors, $120 Million: A Pediatric Medical Scandal | Dr. Jared Ross | EP 494

Coming up (0s)

• A pathway exists where social transition, including changing pronouns, clothing, and names, can lead to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and eventually irreversible surgeries (9s).
• These surgeries result in lifelong patients who are profitable to the medical industrial complex (21s).
• The discussion will cover the surgeries in graphic detail (31s).

Intro (35s)

• Dr. Jared Ross is associated with the organization "Do No Harm," a group of 12,000 medical professionals who are bringing attention to the practices of gender-affirming treatment for minors in the United States (53s).
• Do No Harm released its first database, which assessed insurance claim data from 2019 to 2023, compiling sex change-related treatments administered to minors and at what hospitals (1m28s).
• The database focused exclusively on patients below 17.2 years old and included only confirmed cases of gender transition-related treatments, such as bodily surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers (1m57s).
• The analysis found that approximately 14,000 minors underwent sex change treatments across nearly 2,000 hospitals, with about 6,000 receiving sex change surgeries (2m23s).
• Additionally, 63,000 cross-sex hormones and puberty blocker prescriptions were written for 9,000 minors, resulting in $120 million in submitted charges to insurance (2m45s).
• The discussion centered around the physical and psychological destruction of thousands of minors who cannot give informed consent to this kind of treatment, which is considered a crime against humanity (3m26s).

Do No Harm (3m53s)

• An organization called "Do No Harm" has launched a database called "Stop the Harm" to quantify the problem of radical gender ideology affecting children and their parents, which has been difficult to measure due to counterarguments that the issue is not happening or is being minimized (4m18s).
• The database is a website that is easy to navigate and can be found at stoptheharm.data.org, where it lists various findings on the issue (5m28s).
• The issue at hand is that children are being "gender affirmed," which means they are being put on puberty blockers, mutilated, and sterilized, a process that is considered pathological and not supported by psychometric evidence (5m57s).
• The concept of "gender affirmation" is based on the false claim that gender and sex are separate, and that sex is assigned at birth rather than being a biological reality (6m23s).
• The idea that children can decide for themselves that they are in the wrong bodies and need treatment is also considered problematic, as children are too young to provide informed consent (6m47s).
• The database has found that 14,000 minors have been affected by this issue, which is a significant problem that should not be dismissed as a right-wing conspiracy or delusion (7m22s).

The actual statistics are horrifying, establishing motive (7m27s)

• Between 2019 and 2023, nearly 2,000 hospitals and medical facilities performed changed treatments on approximately 14,000 minors across six different treatments (7m31s).
• The total cost of these treatments, based on submitted insurance claims, amounts to $120 million (8m0s).
• The documented number of minors and the total cost of treatments are considered a conservative estimate and may not reflect the full scope of the problem (9m28s).
• The estimate only accounts for external VA Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance claims, and does not include data from large healthcare systems like Kaiser in California, charity care, or patients who pay cash (9m31s).
• A marketing company previously described the gender-affirming care industry, particularly surgical procedures, as a growth industry with projected 15% annual growth (8m27s).
• This growth potential may serve as a motive for some medical professionals, including surgeons, to pursue this line of work (8m19s).
• Research suggests that sadists are overrepresented among surgeons, which may be a contributing factor to the issue (8m57s).

The parents are directly culpable (9m56s)

• Parents of children with gender dysphoria are often desperate for answers and may be misled by medical professionals who claim that transitioning is the only way to prevent their child's suicide, a claim that is technically impossible to justify due to the presence of prior depression and anxiety (9m57s).
• The idea that transitioning is the best way to treat confused, anxious, and depressed adolescents is considered absurd, as it involves experimental and counterproductive surgery, puberty blockers, and sterilization (11m41s).
• Some parents may be narcissistic and use their child's transition as a way to parade their moral virtue, while others may be genuinely concerned for their child's well-being but still have a duty to protect them against overreaching medical professionals (12m4s).
• The failure of parental interaction is a significant factor in the gender transformation epidemic, and parents should be aware of the indoctrination of identity politics in public schools (12m52s).
• Children are being held out as "gender diverse" in schools, which can be a way for them to stand out and gain favor with teachers, but this can be damaging and should be replaced with celebration of their accomplishments (13m6s).
• Children need to learn how to negotiate effectively, rather than relying on force or compliance, and good negotiation means that both parties walk away satisfied (13m58s).
• To negotiate properly, one needs to know what they want, which can be complicated, but successful negotiation involves getting to where one wants to be while also considering the other person's needs (14m20s).

Why it’s attractive to predominately young women, woke psychology (14m38s)

• Khloe Cole, a detransitioned individual, had her breasts removed at the age of 14, and the wounds never fully healed, resulting in a "nightmare" situation (14m51s).
• Research has shown that negative emotions increase among young women when they hit puberty, with anxiety, depression, and generalized negative emotions being more prevalent in women than men (15m12s).
• Women are two to four times more likely to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and bodily self-consciousness is a common manifestation of negative emotions, particularly in pubertal girls (15m55s).
• Khloe Cole reported that no one explained to her that her negative emotions could be a normal part of puberty, and instead, she was offered a solution that involved hormonal and surgical treatment (16m0s).
• Unhappy children are often offered an alternative explanation for their misery, which is that they are miserable because of their gender identity, and that transitioning will solve all their problems (16m56s).
• This approach is particularly appealing to alienated and isolated children who have never received attention before, and it can be a "devil's brew" for vulnerable 12-year-olds (17m43s).
• Puberty is a time of angst, and the answer to pubertal angst is to go through puberty and possibly receive good talk therapy, but talk therapy is often overlooked in favor of more expensive and ideology-driven treatments (18m15s).
• The field of talk therapy has become corrupt, with some organizations, such as the Canadian Psychological Association, promoting ideology-driven approaches over evidence-based treatments (18m38s).
• In Canada, clinical training programs without a social justice orientation are being removed from certification roles, which is considered a catastrophic development (19m2s).
• Mental health professionals and physicians in Canada are bound by law to avoid discriminating against individuals based on their gender identity or expression, which can lead to them lying to parents and children (19m34s).
• This legislation means that if a distressed 13-year-old is taken to see a psychologist, psychiatrist, or MD, the easiest pathway for the professional is often to affirm the child's self-identified gender, even if it means prescribing puberty blockers or testosterone (20m5s).
• Women are more likely to express negative emotions in the form of bodily self-consciousness, which can contribute to the fact that girls are more affected by this issue (21m15s).
• Girls hit puberty younger and have less experience in the world than boys, which can make them more vulnerable to pressure and exploitation (21m26s).
• The pressure on girls is also higher due to the greater risks associated with sex for them, making them more likely to be preyed upon (21m42s).

Horrifying statistics continued: hormones and puberty blockers (21m51s)

• Approximately 6,000 minors received sex change surgery, and around 63,000 cross-sex hormones and puberty blocker prescriptions were written for 9,000 minors (21m53s).
• Many minors who start with social transition, such as changing pronouns, clothing, and names, often proceed to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and eventually irreversible surgeries (22m33s).
• These surgeries and lifelong medical interventions are very profitable for the medical industrial complex (22m49s).
• The clinical literature suggests that minors who start with sex hormones and puberty blockers are likely to proceed with surgical interventions (22m14s).
• The WPATH organization, composed of non-medical professionals, established guidelines for medical and psychological organizations, which were widely accepted despite lacking a factual basis (24m5s).
• Despite the release of the WPATH files by Michael Shellenberger, the organization remains actively involved and has the support of major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Nursing Association (24m38s).
• The Department of Health and Human Services, funded by taxpayers, also supports WPATH's guidelines (24m51s).

Abigail Shrier, Michael Shellenberger: “it’s easier to believe it’s a right-wing conspiracy” (25m16s)

• A podcast was conducted with Abigail Shrier, which was the first podcast after a period of illness, and the topic discussed was sensitive enough to potentially threaten a psychologist's license (25m18s).
• Abigail Shrier detailed the surgeries performed on minors to some extent in her book and also discussed them in the podcast (25m34s).
• Michael Shellenberger watched the podcast and initially found the information difficult to believe due to its disturbing nature (25m44s).
• Many people find it easier to believe that the issue is a right-wing conspiracy rather than accepting the reality that major children's hospitals in the United States are profiting from performing harmful experiments on minors (25m57s).
• There are 12 major children's hospitals in the United States that are radically profiting from these experiments, which are comparable in severity to those conducted in Nazi concentration camps or by the Japanese in Unit 731 (26m4s).
• The experiments being conducted are considered to be extremely bad and have severe consequences, making it challenging for people to accept the reality of the situation (26m25s).

“It’s the new lobotomy” - the true details of transgender surgeries (26m31s)

• There are over 60 children's hospitals across the country performing hormone treatments and surgeries for minors, but less than 10% of these procedures are actually happening at these hospitals, with the majority being shifted to private surgery centers and community clinics to avoid scrutiny (26m50s).
• An active online movement is providing black or gray market prescriptions for cross-sex hormones to young people, allowing them to access these hormones without parental or physician interference (27m21s).
• To create a penis for a female, surgeons must close the vagina and remove skin and flesh from an arm or leg, resulting in a skin-wrapped bone that is then shaped into a tube of flesh that constitutes a penis, but lacks function and can lead to complications such as internal hair growth and infection (27m43s).
• The reverse procedure, vaginoplasty, involves castrating boys, inverting their penises, or using a section of the colon to create a vagina, which can also lead to complications such as abdominal surgery and infection (28m45s).
• The idea that these surgical procedures can transform a boy into a girl or a man into a woman is considered a lie, as the resulting organs are not functional and require lifelong maintenance, such as dilation with plastic dildos to prevent strictures and rejection (29m38s).
• There have been 14,000 documented cases of these procedures, which is a significant number, and the fact that this is not considered a major moral crime is seen as a delusion that can only be harbored by those who are unwilling to look at the reality of the situation (30m42s).
• A pediatric medical scandal involves 14,000 minors and $120 million, with surgeries happening in the thousands and tens of thousands, and being highly profitable, despite minors being unable to provide informed consent, which is a violation of the Nuremberg Code (31m32s).
• The people involved in these crimes against humanity should be tried, similar to the perpetrators of the Nazi horrors who were tried at Nuremberg, and it is believed that this will not stop until that happens (31m59s).
• The surgeries are now going underground as more light is shone on the issue, which is what would be expected (32m11s).
• Do No Harm is an organization that started over two years ago, founded by Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a well-known professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who pushed back against the encroachment of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in medical schools and the selection of students, residents, and doctors (32m32s).
• The organization is concerned about the erosion of meritocracy in medicine, with ideology and skin color being prioritized over merit (33m10s).
• The organization has documented the pediatric medical scandal, but has only been able to access a certain number of surgeries, and believes that this is just the tip of the iceberg (31m22s).

Intelligence is the highest marker for success, what happens when you dispense with merit (34m44s)

• Intelligence is considered the highest marker for success, and it is closely related to merit, especially in complex jobs like being a doctor, as it predicts long-term success five times better than the next best predictor, conscientiousness (35m20s).
• The idea that merit is an imaginary construction of an oppressive patriarchy is disputed, as cognitive tests were first used by socialists in the UK to provide social mobility for oppressed populations and were also used in the US armed forces (36m6s).
• Dispensing with merit, as assessed objectively, would lead to greater nepotism and dynasty, rather than greater equity, as historical data shows that there are three standard means of providing access to desirable jobs: merit, dynasty, and nepotism (37m8s).
• Harvard uses false measures of personality to racially gerrymander their selection criteria, which is subjective and open to corruption, rather than using objective data (37m37s).
• The consequences of dispensing with merit can be seen in the devastation at the UCLA Medical School, where pass rates for standardized exams have plummeted (38m18s).
• The assault on merit is believed to be driven by people who lack merit and want to gain access to value that was previously merit-defined, especially if they are in a position of power (38m51s).
• The universities are to blame for this inversion of the merit structure, as seen in the example of the University of Toronto's psychology department suspending the GRE for student selection (39m8s).
• The correlation between general cognitive ability and performance in complex tasks is a psychometrically unassailable fact, and denying it would require throwing out the entire enterprise of social and medical sciences (39m36s).

Full subversion of science and ethics, “we now quote MLK as racist” (40m3s)

• The founder of an organization was one of the authors of a standard medical text, but was ousted from that position and his role at the University of Pennsylvania after speaking out against the emphasis on skin color in medicine (40m4s).
• The current state of medicine is described as "upside down," where Martin Luther King Jr.'s quotes are considered racist, and anti-racism is promoted, which involves judging people based on the color of their skin (40m36s).
• This ideology has led to concerns about the unfair distribution of power, with some arguing that certain groups, such as Asians and Jews, are overrepresented in medical school, which is seen as unfair (41m5s).
• However, it is argued that medical school admissions should be based on merit, as the goal is to find the smartest people to serve society, not to reward certain groups (41m24s).
• The founder, Goldar, was motivated to start his organization after being ousted, with the initial focus on restoring medicine to the Hippocratic oath of "first, do no harm" (42m23s).
• The importance of this oath is highlighted, as medical interventions can often cause more harm than good, and the medical profession is not immune to error, with medical error being the third or fourth leading cause of death (43m4s).
• Hospitals are also criticized for being breeding grounds for epidemic pathology, due to the concentration of sick people and compromised immune systems (43m16s).
• The question is raised whether there is epidemiological evidence that the medical profession does more good than harm, and whether the counseling industry has become pathologized to the point where it may not be beneficial for confused adolescents to seek help from mental health professionals (43m32s).

Do No Harm: Over 12,000 members in just 2 years (44m15s)

• Do No Harm has over 12,000 members in just two years, including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, mental health professionals, politicians, policymakers, and parents, with a broad range of backgrounds and expertise (44m15s).
• The organization welcomes everyone and does not deny membership to anyone, with a focus on restoring medicine to meritocracy and taking care of patients as individuals, regardless of their skin color, ethnicity, or heritage (45m0s).
• The organization was started by Dr. Goldfarb to combat the harmful radical gender ideology and protect minors from this ideology, which includes social affirmations, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries (45m35s).
• Senior fellows within the organization work on specific issues, and one of the senior fellows has been involved with the organization for about a year and has been working on both sides of the house, focusing on meritocracy and combating gender ideology (45m11s).
• The senior fellow's background is as an emergency medicine physician and a medical school university professor at the University of Missouri, and they have not faced any pushback from their colleagues due to their involvement with the organization (46m29s).
• The senior fellow emphasizes the importance of freedom of speech and notes that they are speaking their own opinion and not on behalf of the University (46m53s).

Corrupt social psychology seeping into the diagnostic realm, forced to accept unconscious bias as fact (48m43s)

• Physicians are required to renew their board certifications every 5 to 10 years, which involves logging on to a professionalism code that includes a statement about mitigating conscious and unconscious bias (49m16s).
• The concept of implicit bias originated from the implicit association test, created by social psychologists at Harvard, which has been criticized for its lack of reliability and validity in diagnostic purposes (49m49s).
• The implicit association test is not stable enough to predict behavior or be classified as a diagnostic tool, yet its creators have benefited professionally from its misuse (50m21s).
• Implicit bias may be attributed to various factors, including novelty aversion, ingroup preference, and familiarity with people of the same race (50m58s).
• Professional organizations require physicians to sign documents accepting the existence of implicit bias and the moral obligation to mitigate it, despite a lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness (52m55s).
• Highlighting racial disparity and implicit bias may actually enhance racial tension, rather than reducing it (52m36s).
• Physicians are required to act as if they accept the concept of implicit bias as fact, even if they do not believe it exists, in order to maintain their certification (53m5s).
• Human evolution has led to an ingroup preference, where people tend to identify with those in their own group and have a harder time distinguishing between individuals in outgroups, a phenomenon known as outgroup homogeneity, which has been present for around 6-7 million years of human evolution as hunter-gatherer tribes (53m15s).
• This preference is not inherently malicious, but it has been twisted and used to promote racism by teaching people to judge others based on the color of their skin, and this concept is often only examined in one direction (54m31s).
• Outgroup homogeneity can occur in any race, and it's a natural part of human nature, but it can also be malicious, and people need to work to overcome their familiarity bias, which is why objective tests are used (54m55s).
• The proponents of the implicit bias hypothesis often reject objective tests, which is contradictory, as objective tests are meant to overcome familiarity bias (55m20s).
• The speaker joined the organization "Do No Harm" after reaching out with their experience with the American Board of Emergency Medicine and was featured in a newsletter, then became more involved with the organization at a conference in Oklahoma City (56m2s).
• The speaker was passionate about the issues addressed by the organization, including the gender side, but the text does not provide further information on this topic (56m24s).

Why Dr. Ross became interested in these topics: John Stossel, Ryan T. Anderson, Abigail Shrier (56m27s)

• The concept of sex and gender roles was explored in a social studies course, which led to an interest in the sociological and biological aspects of sex and sex differentiation, including disorders of sex differentiation, also known as intersex conditions (56m27s).
• Disorders of sex differentiation are not people in the middle of the male-female spectrum, but rather males or females who did not develop properly, and these conditions do not demolish the categories of male and female (57m17s).
• The existence of exceptions to a category does not invalidate the category itself, and demolishing categories is a pressure exerted by postmodernist types (57m46s).
• The idea that a man can become a woman with surgical alteration is a lie, and if people can be convinced of this, they will swallow any lie, as sex is a fundamental perceptual category that evolved a long time ago (58m4s).
• Sex is used by most symbolic systems as the basis for categorizing other dichotomies, and it is a fundamental aspect of human perception and organization of the world (58m42s).
• The fact that there are exceptions to an ideal is irrelevant and true of every possible category system, and it is no proof that the category is invalid (59m20s).
• In the early 2000s, there was a push from the medical establishment to correct anatomical anomalies in children with disorders of sex differentiation through surgery, despite vocal opposition from grown individuals with these conditions (59m32s).
• The idea of how biology interacts with sociology and society was explored, particularly in the context of autonomy and the practice of mutilating baby boys in the name of religion, culture, and tradition (1h0m5s).
• The realization of the importance of autonomy led to a deeper exploration of the intersection of biology, sociology, and society (1h0m35s).
• Performing unnecessary surgeries on children who cannot give informed consent is a significant issue, as it takes away their autonomy and can cause harm, with some medical professionals acknowledging the problem and the need to address it (1h0m41s).
• The resurgence of the trans ideology has become mainstream, with some books being banned, such as Ryan Anderson's "When Harry Became Sally," which was banned by Amazon, drawing attention to the issue (1h1m31s).
• The book "Irreversible Damage" by Abigail Shrier discusses the rapid onset gender dysphoria in girls, highlighting the significant physical changes that occur during puberty, particularly in women, such as breast development and body shape changes (1h1m53s).
• Women and girls are more likely to be victimized sexually, and this fear can be a powerful motivator for some to identify as men and take control of their bodies and interactions with society, with testosterone being seen as even more empowering (1h2m35s).
• The issue of transformation, not just surface-level changes but also deeper, more profound changes, is a complex one, with some programs, such as Exodus 90, aiming to help men become the best version of themselves through a daily companion and guided journey (1h3m16s).
• Exodus 90 is a program that offers a daily companion and guided journey to help men become the best version of themselves, with a focus on lasting transformation and growth, particularly during the Advent season (1h3m49s).

What we’ve known about gender development for decades (1h4m16s)

• Children who are more likely to be drawn into the medical gender transformation industry include those who have been sexually abused, are autistic, do not have a support system, have a complex developmental history, and have a history of psychiatric disorders (1h4m23s).
• Autistic children, particularly females, may have a thought pattern that is somewhat more masculine, as they tend to be more interested in things than people, which is a more masculine pattern of cognition (1h4m34s).
• The medical gender transformation industry targets vulnerable children, including those who are lost and have no one to stand up for them (1h5m0s).
• The issue is a complex one, involving multiple institutions and systems, including universities, medical schools, faculties of education, training grounds for psychologists, K-12 education systems, hospitals, and physicians (1h5m14s).
• The pervasiveness of the problem is also reflected in the laws and lawmakers, with progressives pushing for these changes, making it difficult to know where to stop questioning the system (1h5m45s).
• The widespread nature of the issue is likened to a "multi-headed Hydra," indicating a complex and deeply ingrained problem (1h5m9s).

The Dirty Dozen - children’s hospitals that purposely do harm (1h6m1s)

• A list of children's hospitals, referred to as the "Dirty Dozen," has been identified as the worst offenders for promoting sex change treatments for minors, with the top three being the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, and Children's Minnesota (1h6m6s).
• The full list of the "Dirty Dozen" includes the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Children's Minnesota, Seattle Children's, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children's Hospital, Rady Children's Hospital, California Children's National Medical Center, UCSF Benioff's Children's Hospital, California Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital Colorado, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (1h6m51s).
• The acronym for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is CHOP, which has been noted for its ironic and unsettling nature (1h6m43s).
• The response from these hospitals to the revelation of their involvement in promoting sex change treatments for minors has been relatively muted, with some pushback but no major firestorm yet, as they appear to be calculating their response (1h7m52s).

The plan of action: 50 billion claims against toxic compassion (1h8m22s)

• The strategy to address the pediatric medical scandal is expected to involve denial, with attempts to move the issue underground, despite weaknesses in the database. (1h8m24s)
• A total of 50 billion claims have been made, with the methodology for evaluating the data outlined in a white paper, and a conservative approach taken to ensure accuracy. (1h8m42s)
• The data set does not include missing pieces, and the evaluation was done to only include correct information, with the findings saying nothing about the number of surgeries performed on people between 18 and 25. (1h8m49s)
• It is suggested that the right to perform gender transformation surgeries should be stripped from the medical profession, as they have proven unable to regulate themselves in this regard. (1h9m24s)
• The medical profession has been experimenting with gender transformation surgeries since the 1960s, but it has only recently become a widespread issue, with the profession being complicit in the problem. (1h9m45s)
• The data only goes up to 17 and 18 years old, and it is believed that this is just the tip of the iceberg, with intentional efforts to bring the issue underground and miscode procedures. (1h10m20s)
• Leaked Zoom videos have shown physicians and billers being told how to hide the issue, and the data does not cover the cash pay world, where some doctors offer to perform surgeries for free. (1h10m55s)
• The issue is described as "toxic compassion," with some doctors offering to perform surgeries for free, but this is not captured in the data. (1h11m32s)

How you can help (1h11m35s)

• A review of the data on pediatric medical scandal reveals that 14,000 minors underwent sex change treatments across nearly 2,000 hospitals in a 5-year period from 2019 to 2023, with 6,000 receiving sex change surgery and 62,000 cross-sex hormones and puberty blocker prescriptions written for 9,000 minors, resulting in $120 million submitted to insurance claims (1h12m10s).
• The top five offenders include Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Children's Minnesota, Seattle Children's, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles (1h12m57s).
• To get involved and help, people are encouraged to visit the website Do No Harm Medicine at donoharmmedicine.org, where they can access a link to the database and join as a member to get connected with communications and reach out to local policymakers and hospitals (1h13m28s).
• Another website, Stop the Harm Database at stoptheharmdatabase.org, is also available for people to access information and get involved (1h14m22s).
• The goal is to bring attention to the issue and produce economic and reputational pain to the hospitals and corporations involved, such as Starbucks, to bring about change (1h14m3s).