FTC, Several States Sue Transgender Health Association over ‘Deceptive Claims’ About Sex Changes for Minors

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and several Republican-led states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), alleging that the organization has “made false, misleading, or unsubstantiated statements” to promote sex-mutilating drugs and surgeries for minors for the benefit of its members.  

The FTC, along with Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas, alleged in their complaint that WPATH’s recommendations to medical providers and major organizations have misled parents and children about the medical consensus, necessity, safety, and effectiveness of sex change services. 

“Today, the FTC filed a lawsuit against WPATH alleging that the organization made false and unsubstantiated claims regarding the necessity, effectiveness and safety of puberty blockers, hormones and sex-change surgeries,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement.

“Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services,” Ferguson continued. “For decades, the FTC has taken action against entities that make deceptive and unsubstantiated health-related claims. The complaint filed today reflects that same long-standing mandate: when an entity makes a claim about a medical treatment, the claim must be truthful, evidence-based and not misleading.”

WPATH, which has influenced the policies of major medical organizations, as well as the previous pro-transgender Biden administration, removed all of its age limitations in 2022 for sex change surgeries — like breast amputations and genital removals — from its updated “Standards of Care.”

In the past few years, WPATH has gone through several public scandals, including a leaked internal meeting in which an endocrinologist admitted that discussing long-term potential for infertility with a 14-year-old is like “talking to a blank wall,” and an alleged pressure campaign from the Biden administration to remove age requirements for sex-change surgeries. Internal documents revealed the organization had private reservations about sex changes for minors, all while promoting them to the public.

The complaint points to these events and alleges WPATH did not base its decisions in medical evidence. The lawsuit also alleges the organization failed to disclose certain side effects of child sex changes, including how cross-sex hormones “carry significant harms for minors, including mood disturbances, vocal pain, pelvic pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, clitoral discomfort, vaginal pain, persistent sexual dysfunction continuing after cessation of use, and erectile pain — effects that can be permanent.”

“As described in the complaint, in several instances, parents seeking help for their children were asked by clinicians whether they ‘would rather have a live daughter or a dead son,’ based on WPATH representations that pediatric medical transition services are ‘lifesaving.’ As the complaint argues, there is no competent and reliable scientific evidence to suggest these interventions reduce the risk of suicide,” the FTC said in its press release. 

Ultimately, the lawsuit alleges that WPATH claimed its recommendations were “consensus-based expert opinion,” which led the organization’s members and other medical providers to repeat false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims to patients. The complaint also alleges that despite reliable evidence, WPATH’s guidelines label almost every transgender pediatric service as “medically necessary” to “trigger maximum insurance coverage for pediatric medical transition services.”

“When an organization provides guidance designed to mislead families about the risks, benefits, or medical consensus behind a treatment, it undermines trust in those responsible for providing medical care,” said FTC Commissioner Mark R. Meador. “Our action today is a straightforward application of the law to ensure that families receive accurate, evidence-based information as they seek to make some of the most important healthcare decisions for their children.”

“Any group that illegally promotes irreversible, life-altering ‘transitioning’ procedures to kids as safe and necessary will face the full force of the law for harming children,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton added. “We will not allow WPATH or any other organization to illegally promote or perform dangerous ‘transitioning’ procedures on our kids that leave them with permanent trauma and lifelong health consequences.”

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a statement praising the FTC and states for suing WPATH.

“Medical organizations must follow the science, disclose conflicts, and put patients first. Children deserve the highest standard of care, parents deserve honest information, and the American people deserve accountability,” he said.

HHS noted that the FTC took action after HHS released a report last year documenting “significant concerns” about how WPATH developed its “Standards of Care.”

WPATH released a statement in response to the FTC’s lawsuit, saying it is “the second time this year the Trump Administration has abused the authority of its agencies to interfere with Americans’ rights to seek and obtain the healthcare that should be decided between a patient and their physician.” The statement continues:

The first attempt, the FTC’s improper requests to WPATH for protected information was struck down by a federal judge. As an end-around, the FTC has now purportedly brought a similarly baseless actual complaint and has enlisted the administration’s go-to, obedient state attorneys general to help do its unlawful bidding. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a medical provider and has no place interfering with the process of individualized medical decision-making and the FTC also does not have any jurisdiction over WPATH and its noncommercial speech. The state claims have similar factual and legal flaws.

In previously ruling against the FTC, a federal district court has already found WPATH is in a strong position to prove that the FTC is acting out of pure retaliation as part of the federal government’s relentless and targeted campaign to undermine gender-affirming care by attacking the First Amendment rights and the independence of professional medical organizations. We expect the same result when we oppose this latest attack on WPATH and its mission to promote evidence-informed care and guidance for doctors and their patients.

For more than 50 years, WPATH has been committed to developing guidelines informed by established scientific standards, expert consensus, and patient centered values. WPATH supports individualized patient care, not a “one size fits all” approach. Transgender and gender-diverse patients deserve the highest level of care from their medical professionals and the Standards of Care are designed to promote this through open dialogue and clear communication.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.