The WPATH Files Exposes ‘Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children’

Environmental Progress recently released a “devastating exposé” of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) and its recommended medical interventions for children and adults who identify as “transgender.”

WPATH supports damaging, dangerous, irreversible, and sterilizing medical interventions for children and adults, including puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries.

The organization claims its mission is to “promote evidence-based care, education, research, public policy, and respect in transgender health” and to “promote the highest standards of health care for transgender and gender diverse people.”

WPATH is reputed as the world’s “leading scientific and medical organization devoted to transgender healthcare.” WPATH regularly publishes Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People; these guidelines are then used by influential medical organizations – like the American Academy of Pediatrics and The Endocrine Society – and healthcare professionals to develop treatment plans for individuals who claim to be gender dysphoric.

In short – WPATH is probably the world’s foremost promoter of “transgenderism.”

The WPATH Files: Pseudoscientific surgical and hormonal experiments on children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults was authored by journalist Mia Hughes and published by Environmental Progress, founded by author and journalist Michael Shellenberger. Environmental Progress “works on a wide range of issues, from climate change to homelessness to freedom of speech, all of which constitute important aspects of our ‘environment,’” Shellenberger explains.

The 241-page report exposes damning internal documents from WPATH, revealing internal conversations from members of the organization discussing specific medical cases. The leaked documents show that WPATH is “neither a scientific nor medical organization and should not be treated as one.”

Here are some of the most significant takeaways from The WPATH Files, as summarized by Environmental Progress’ Executive Summary of the report:

• WPATH-affiliated doctors are knowingly violating bedrock principles of medical ethics and informed consent.
• Patients with severe mental health issues – like schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder – are being subjected to life-altering hormonal and surgical interventions without WPATH-members making any attempt to first address these underlying issues.
• WPATH-affiliated doctors are “fully aware” that children and adolescents cannot comprehend the lifelong consequences of “gender-affirming care,” and in some cases, due to poor health literacy, neither can their parents.
• Internal communications show that WPATH advocates for arbitrary medical practices, including hormonal and surgical experimentation on minors and vulnerable adults.
• WPATH members demonstrate a lack of consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects of opposite-sex hormones and other treatments.

In a statement following The WPATH Files’ publication, Schellenberger stated that “The WPATH Files show that what is called ‘gender medicine’ is neither science nor medicine. The experiments are not randomized, double-blind, or controlled. It’s not medicine since the first rule is to do no harm. And that requires informed consent.” He added:

Activist members of WPATH know that the so-called “gender-affirming care” they provide can result in life-long complications and sterility and that their patients do not understand the implications, such as loss of sexual function and the ability to experience orgasm.

These leaked files show overwhelming evidence that the professionals within WPATH know that they are not getting consent from children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults, or their caregivers.

Posting about The WPATH Files on X, Shellenberger wrote,

The WPATH Files prove that gender medicine is comprised of unregulated and pseudoscientific experiments on children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. It will go down as one of the worst medical scandals in history.

After the Files were released, WPATH members were not apologetic nor repentant for the harm they have caused thousands of children and adults.

No – the WPATH leaders were defiant.

The president of WPATH, Dr. Marci Bowers – a man who identifies as a woman – issued a statement on Mar. 4, the day after the Files were released. He reiterated the assertion that WPATH members are “the professionals who best know the medical needs of trans and gender diverse individuals.” Bowers revealed their commitment to ideology, not science, adding,

The world is not flat. Gender, like genitalia, is represented by diversity. The small percentage of the population that is trans or gender diverse deserves healthcare and will never be a threat to the global gender binary.

Additionally, WPATH’s Executive Director Blaine Vella requested WPATH members not respond to any media requests.

After The WPATH Files was posted online, a guidance that encouraged transgender interventions for children struggling with sexual identity confusion disappeared from WPATH’s website.

The organization posted an advisory, ostensibly explaining the problem: “PLEASE BE ADVISED OUR WEBSITE IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING AN INTERNAL SYSTEM ISSUES.”

Environmental Progress and Mia Hughes have done a huge service to humanity, and to all children currently suffering from sexual identity confusion. Their decision to publish The WPATH Files was courageous; they deserve recognition and our thanks.

They have exposed a group of people who are knowingly and permanently harming children. This is evil, plain and simple, and it must be acknowledged as such.

Environmental Progress has called on the U.S. government to launch a national inquiry “to investigate how activists with little respect for the Hippocratic Oath could have risen to such prominence as to set the Standards of Care for an entire field of medicine, leading to the medical abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.”

That would clearly be a necessary and commonsense step in the right direction.

Until then, please pray for all those struggling with sexual identity confusion as well as those being manipulated by gender ideology and transgenderism. Pray they would know the truth – that God made them as they are, male or female. Pray also that justice would be done to those “medical professionals” who are sowing confusion and deception.

Additionally, consider sharing this article, so more people can know about the lies surrounding “transgender medicine” that The WPATH Files has exposed and brought into the light.

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21, ESV).

If you are struggling – or know someone struggling – with sexual identity confusion, please utilize the available help and resources below.

Focus on the Family exists to help families, and that includes help navigating the issue of transgenderism. Focus offers a free, one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. To request a counseling consultation, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) or fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

Related articles and resources:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Transgender Resources

The WPATH Files – Transgender Interventions Are ‘Unethical Medical Experiments’

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

The Journey Back to My True Identity

What is ‘Gender Identity’

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

Do Not Fall for the ‘Affirm Them or They Will Die’ Lie

How to Defeat Gender Ideology, Protect Children and End ‘Trans America’

Photo from Shuttestock.