While the Biden Administration has uncritically embraced the necessity of “gender-affirmative” medicine for American adolescents, other countries are slamming on the brakes.

In France the National Academy of Medicine has warned doctors that the growing number of cases of transgender identity in young people are often socially mediated and that great caution is needed when treating them.

The Academy stresses that hormonal and surgical treatments carry health risks and have permanent effects, and that it is not possible to distinguish a durable trans identity from a passing phase of an adolescent’s development. It declares in a press release (translated by SEGM):

If France allows the use of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones with parental authorization and no age limitations, the greatest caution is needed in their use, taking into account the side-effects such as the impact on growth, bone weakening, risk of sterility, emotional and intellectual consequences and, for girls, menopause-like symptoms. As for surgical treatments, specifically mastectomy, which is allowed in France at the age of 14, and surgeries relating to the external genitalia (vulva, penis), it must be emphasized that these procedures are irreversible.

And starkly different from the prevailing mood in the US, the French Academy warns that “the risk of over-diagnosis is real, as evidenced by the growing number of young adults wishing to detransition. Instead of pushing children and teenagers onto a trans path quickly, the Academy says that the phase of psychological care should be extended for as long as possible.