Opinion: What the Supreme Court doesn’t understand about medical care for trans youth
“As a pediatrician, I never imagined having lawmakers decide which children's suffering deserves treatment.”
Recently, I prescribed estrogen to a young woman with primary ovarian insufficiency — a condition in which her body doesn’t make enough estrogen naturally. This hormone replacement is standard care, medically necessary, and entirely uncontroversial.
Yet if I were to prescribe the identical medication to a transgender girl experiencing gender dysphoria, I could face felony charges in six states. The medication is the same. The careful medical evaluation is the same. But one is celebrated while the other is criminalized — with devastating consequences for the children whose futures hang in the balance.
