Thread by @LeorSapir

In his testimony in favor of "gender affirming care" before the Florida board of medicine, Dr. Aron Janssen (@LGBTDoc) was asked why Europe has taken a more "conservative" approach than we have.

A quick fact check thread:

Janssen: "The best data that we have, and the best longitudinal data that we have about transgender youth, comes primarily out of the Dutch clinic... That's the prevailing model that most American clinics have based their care upon."

One of those Dutch researchers disagrees.

Dr. Thomas Steensma of the Amsterdam University Medical Center said in 2021 that "the rest of the world is blindly adopting our research."

voorzij.nl/more-research-…

He was referring to the fact that the majority of those referred to pediatric gender clinics today do not fit the profile, or fulfill the criteria for eligibility, of the patients on whom the Dutch study was conducted.

It's very clear, if you just read the Dutch articles and look at the data compiled from the Tavistock clinic and by Komodo Health in the U.S.

Dr. Kaltiala, head of Finland's largest gender clinic who testified in favor of the Florida rule, also emphasized this point.

The discrepancy in patient populations, and with it the real possibility that the protocol developed in the Dutch study may not apply to other cohorts, is what prompted Sweden, Finland, and the U.K. to investigate, do systematic reviews of the evidence, and slam on the breaks.

No less problematic, for Janssen, is a recent finding by investigative reporters at Reuters.

reuters.com/investigates/s…

Reuters: "[D]octors and other staff at 18 gender clinics across the [U.S.] described their processes for evaluating patients. None described anything like the months-long assessments de Vries [lead author of the Dutch study] and her colleagues adopted in their research."

Not only does 1 of the Dutch researchers disagree with Janssen about the applicability of their research, but American clinicians involved in this area of medicine themselves say that the Dutch protocol is not being applied here. And recall: per Janssen, this is the "best data."

Setting aside the applicability problem, which is fatal to Janssen's argument, the Dutch study itself suffers from fatal weaknesses, meaning that even when applied to the intended patient population, it is very low quality evidence-based care.

For the history and problems with the Dutch Protocol, see:

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

and

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

I'd glad we have Dr. Janssen saying, on the record, that the Dutch study is the best evidence we have for what is going on in American clinics.

I think his testimony last Friday will become the truly best evidence we have for what is going on in American clinics.