A Fight Over Evidence-Based Medicine And Gender Affirming Care

The case of McMaster University

Pictured: Controversial. Photo by Karollyne Videira Hubert on Unsplash

One of the top scientific researchers in the world has just released a statement about gender-affirming care that has caused a huge furor. Professor Gordon Guyatt, who is among the top ~50 academics in the world in the metrics that academia values, and his less well-known colleagues released this statement about their recent work. They have just done a series of studies looking into gender-affirming care options funded by notorious anti medical treatment group SEGM.

Their statement is lengthy, but I think this bit sums it up nicely:

“…we are concerned that the assessments of the certainty of evidence using established and standard methodology are interpreted as evidence supporting denial of care to trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals, including youth. We are concerned our findings will be used to justify denying care such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to TGD individuals. Indeed, our prior work has been used in exactly this highly problematic way.

We therefore feel compelled to make explicit our view regarding how our findings should and should not be used. Following fundamental principles of humane medical practice, clinicians have an obligation to care for those in…