A new report from a slate of European medical organizations emphasizes the importance of gender-affirming care for transgender youth. It also condemns the UK’s controversial Cass Review that claimed gender-affirming care is dangerous for young people.
The new 400-page report, released last week and written in German, included 26 medical and psychotherapeutic professional organizations from Germany,
Switzerland, and Austria. According to an analysis and translation by transgender journalist Erin Reed, the guidelines recommend puberty blockers for trans youth, as well as individualized care.
The report adds, “If, in individual cases, the progressive pubertal maturation development creates a time pressure in which health damage would be expected due to longer waiting times to avert irreversible bodily changes (e.g. male voice change), access to child and adolescent psychiatric or psychotherapeutic clarification and medical treatment options should be granted as quickly as possible.”
The report also slams the Cass Review for recommending psychotherapy as a treatment for gender dysphoria rather than gender-affirming care, since “none of the studies included in the review in question were able to show a reduction in gender dysphoria through psychotherapy.”
The Cass Review is a 400-page review of oft-cited research on gender-affirming care for minors. The review concluded that there’s little reliable evidence showing positive outcomes from such care and urged “extreme caution” before giving minors puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy. It also said that “life-changing” decisions on gender-affirming care should be put off until adulthood since the brain continues maturing into the mid-20s.
Outraged trans activists said the Cass Review excluded hundreds of studies showing the critical benefits of gender-affirming care for youth. Reed eviscerated Cass’s findings at the time of its release, saying the report included concepts rejected by more than 60 mental health organizations, including the American Psychological Association.
Reed said the new guidelines from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria “mark a significant advancement for transgender healthcare in those countries, reinforcing a growing trend in Europe toward expanding, not restricting, access to gender-affirming care.” Its recommendations, she added, “dismantle the false narrative that Europe is ‘pulling back’ on transgender care. In reality, it is the United States that stands as an outlier, with its regressive policies placing it far to the right of much of the Western world.”
She also called out the media for ignoring the new report recommending gender-affirming care despite publishing piece after piece on the Cass Review.
She wrote on Bluesky, “Anyone find it funny how when the UK releases the Cass review to ban trans care, we get everything ranging from New York Times push notifs to op-eds in every major US paper… But when Germany, Switzerland, and Austria release pro-trans youth care guidelines, not a single article anywhere but mine?”
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