“When an entity makes a claim about a medical treatment, the claim must be truthful, evidence-based and not misleading,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a press release on Wednesday.

“Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services,” Ferguson said. “For decades, the FTC has taken action against entities that make deceptive and unsubstantiated health-related claims.”

Joe Simonson, director of public affairs for the FTC, told reporters that the organization intentionally “deceived parents and children of the medical and scientific basis for such services” in order to ensure that such procedures would be covered by insurance. 

The lawsuit provides documentation that internal communications among drafters of the organization’s Standards of Care 8 document in 2022 repeatedly discussed that guidelines “should be written to guarantee insurance coverage” and issue “broad ‘medical necessities.’” 

The Standards of Care document removed age minimums for hormone therapies as well as genital reconstructive surgeries and encouraged such treatment for children as young as eight years of age if they experienced intense gender dysphoria. 

WPATH’s Standards of Care 8 document has come under scrutiny in recent years after a different lawsuit against the organization revealed top Biden administration HHS officials pressured the organization to loosen age recommendations for transgender medical treatment. 

The political pressure came from the office of Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman.

Simonson said the lawsuit alleges that WPATH included procedures in their guidelines “specifically to benefit and profit their members,” mostly consisting of surgeons and endocrinologists specializing in transgender medicine. 

“As a result, most major insurance companies now foot the bill for pediatric medical transition services, including services that parents would otherwise be unable or unwilling to purchase without insurance,” Simonson said. 

The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has taken various steps to constrain insurance reimbursement for transgender medical procedures. 

In December, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a new proposed rule barring hospitals and healthcare providers from receiving federal Medicare reimbursement if they perform what the administration called “sex-rejecting procedures on children.” 

That move has been tied up in the courts, as nearly all hospitals in the United States depend upon Medicare reimbursement, effectively making the proposed rule a nationwide ban on transgender medicine for minors. 

Several states joined in the FTC’s lawsuit against WPATH, including Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, and Alaska.

The FTC held a roundtable discussion last year with de-transitioners, or those who underwent medical gender transition and reversed course, and their parents.

Senior administration officials told reporters that the stories from families who have undergone medical transition are very consistent. Parents of minors who underwent medical transition frequently say that they were told by care teams that their children would commit suicide if they did not transition.

Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brian Christine signed off on an extensive report late last year, finding that there is little to no evidence supporting that cross-sex hormone or puberty blocker therapies for children reduce the risk of suicide.

Instead, growing evidence suggests that puberty blockers are not only not reversible as advocates claim, but also can have negative consequences, including diminished bone density and cognitive delays. 

Senior administration officials also told reporters that the FTC has investigated several cases of detransitioner patients with lifelong complications from cross-sex surgical procedures, describing in graphic detail some of the effects from vaginoplasty, or the creation of a pseudo-vagina, on a male’s body. 

DETRANSITIONER OUTLINES POLICIES TO PREVENT MEDICAL TRANSITION OF MINORS

Side effects from both prolonged hormone use and genital surgeries can entail chronic pelvic pain, infertility, cardiovascular risks, and nerve damage. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is involved in the drafting of medical billing codes, is currently in the midst of creating more detailed categories for types of gender transition medical treatments to ensure provision of care for complications following surgical or hormonal sex change treatment.