The tax dollars of the citizens of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin are funneling into state university health programs openly providing unproven hormonal injections that have been shown to be exceptionally risky—including possible side effects of infertility, cancer, and death.
Indiana University’s Student Health Center, the University Health Services for University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Illinois’ McKinley Center all provide hormonal injections for students and other services they claim are “gender-affirming care” without parental notification and often with great medical risk.
University Health Services for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s “Informed Consent” form for receiving “feminizing hormones” contains several contradictions. In the introduction, Hormone therapy (HRT) is described as an “Important component of transition” that “can greatly improve quality of life, psychological well-being, and affirm identity”—the form then describes increased chances for migraines, decreased bone density, diabetes, infertility, cancer, and death.
A 2018 study of 5,000 individuals suffering from gender dysphoria taking hormonal treatments showed a higher risk for blood clots, stroke, and heart attacks.
Wisconsin notes this by adding “We know HRT is life-affirming care, but some side effects from hormones are irreversible and could cause death in rare circumstances.”
On the same form, Wisconsin admits that the long-term effects of HRT are unknown.
Indiana University’s health center suggests that students requesting hormones sit through psychological and physical examinations before being prescribed HRT, but explicitly states that IU won’t withhold hormones if the student declines exams.
The University of Illinois’ McKinley Health Center suggests students explore their existing insurance policies in order to obtain HRTs at off-campus pharmacies—where students would then self-administer the hormone injections. McKinley further advises students visit Planned Parenthood and other providers who “routinely prescribe [hormonal treatments].”
Additionally, McKinley advises students sign up with the manufacturer of one of the hormonal treatments for a voucher program to reduce HRT cost. No psychological evaluation is required to obtain the voucher.
All three medical centers specifically state that they follow the “gender-affirming care” guidelines provided by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
WPATH suggests (in documents linked via Indiana University) that children as young as two years old begin showing gender dysphoria, and claims that children as young as nine should be considered for hormone injections. While WPATH suggests parental or guardian consent is needed until “the adolescent has reached the age of medical consent”, it does not establish what that age is.
WPATH claims in the same document that there is “no increased risk” of cancer when utilizing hormonal treatments, or that the results are “inconclusive.”
Curiously, WPATH admits “To date, no controlled clinical trials of any feminizing/masculinizing hormone regimen have been conducted to evaluate safety or efficacy in producing physical transition.”
There have yet to be any significant studies that suggest a student’s quality of life are improved by the immense physical trauma of manipulating the endocrine and reproductive systems via hormonal injections. Several studies in the U.K. have found hormonal treatments to be harmful, propped up by “low-quality evidence” by advocates.
University staff dispensing unproven, harmful, and potentially deadly injections for students to self-administer is medically concerning, but additional issues arise when considering these are public university programs funded by taxpayers.
The Hyde Amendment bans tax dollars from funding abortion-related procedures—driven by the medical controversy surrounding some Americans wishing to refrain from funding a procedure they morally disagree with. In this case, however, many Americans are funding procedures they disagree with just as strongly—whether they like it or not.
