According to a study by The Spectator, Georgetown University medical students are taught that the only way to cure patients with gender dysphoria is to “repair” their bodies through medication therapy and gender-transition procedures. This contradicts Catholic teaching on human sexuality.
The news source quoted lecture slides from a course offered the previous year and a course catalog description of a clinical rotation course.
The Catholic university Georgetown did not respond to The Spectator or CNA’s requests for comment.
According to one of the lecture slides obtained by The Spectator, in a mandatory first-year Human Sexuality course, guest lecturer Dr. David S. Reitman informed students that for many “trans” patients suffering from gender dysphoria, “the only option to assist them is to ‘repair’ their bodies.”
Reitman is a pediatrician at Georgetown University Hospital, where he is also an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics and teaches medical students. He also manages the student health facility at American University and founded the LGBT Health Initiative at George Washington University. The universities Georgetown, American, and George Washington are all located in Washington, D.C.
According to the lecture slides, Reitman proposed “stopping puberty” with medications or employing “medically necessary” hormone therapy that masculinize or feminize a patient based on his or her desired gender identity to “correct” children with gender dysphoria.
Under the condition of anonymity, CNA spoke with a former Georgetown University medical student who took Reitman’s course and disputed some of his statements.
Referring to peer-reviewed publications that identify physiologic concerns connected with hormone therapy, the former student stated, “There are many unnecessary dangers added to an otherwise physically healthy child if hormone treatments are initiated.”
Former student: “Some of the detrimental consequences are irreversible and hazardous.” “The approach to physical therapies is just inconsistent with the psychiatric diagnosis,” the conclusion reads.
Reitman declined to comment in response to CNA’s request.
The Spectator article also highlighted Georgetown’s Sexual and Gender Minority Health elective, a clinical rotation at Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, D.C. According to the course description in a course catalog, medical students would “work with a multidisciplinary team and be exposed to a variety of themes important to providing high-quality treatment to LGBT patients,” such as “gender affirming hormonal therapy.”
Introducing youth to “falsehoods.”
According to The Spectator, Reitman also pushes for the use of puberty blockers, feminizing and masculinizing hormone treatments, and irreversible sex-transition procedures, including so-called “bottom surgeries,” that carry grave dangers.
According to lecture slides obtained by The Spectator, Reitman acknowledges that puberty blockers have undesirable side effects, such as decreased bone density and height, and alterations to secondary sex traits, such as hair and breast growth.
However, on one slide, the phrase “totally reversible” is placed over a list of benefits and cons.
This assertion contradicts the personal experiences of many who have been prescribed puberty blockers, such as Chloe Cole, a “former transgender child.” Cole told CNA in September that she still experiences side effects from taking puberty blockers.
Cole was prescribed puberty inhibitors and testosterone at the age of 13. She continues to endure joint discomfort from diminished bone density, a recognized adverse effect of puberty blockers, as well as specific allergies and persistent urinary tract infection symptoms, after being off puberty blockers for several years.
The substance of the lectures was harshly criticized by Dr. Michelle Cretella, a Catholic pediatrician and former executive director of the American College of Pediatricians. She stated that the medical school is “complicit in the chemical castration and sterilization of youngsters, because this is precisely what so-called transgender medical and surgical operations do to everyone who undergoes them.”
Cretella is also a board member of Advocates Protecting Children, an organization that provides parents and the general public with numerous opportunities to discover the reality about transgenderism.
She continued, “Chemical castration, sterilization, and genital mutilation are not health care.” “In reality, package inserts for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones warn that, far from preventing suicide, they frequently increase the emotional pain that precedes suicidal depression.”
As reported by Reuters last month, “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved puberty blockers and sex hormones for children’s gender treatment. No clinical studies have demonstrated their safety for this off-label application. Uncertain are the long-term effects of medicines on fertility and sexual function.
After receiving several reports of youngsters committing suicide after taking puberty blockers, the FDA mandated in 2016 that manufacturers add warning labels regarding the medications’ potential to cause psychological disorders. In 2022, more warnings regarding puberty blockers and the dangers of brain problems and decreased vision were issued.
According to Reuters, the National Institutes of Health notes that “the evidence is limited” about the short- and long-term health hazards associated with puberty blockers, particularly in regards to fertility and cognitive development.
In 1789, Jesuits of the Loyola order created Georgetown University, which is now predominantly administered by members of the Society of Jesus.
Georgetown was also condemned by Patrick Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society, a non-profit organization that protects Catholic education.
Georgetown has regularly breached its Catholic university mandate. Reilly told CNA that there is no authentic Catholic education that openly contradicts the beauty of persons created by God as male and female.
“When important Catholic universities teach against the truth, with no visible effect other than growing flagrant opposition, and lead young people into deception and heinous sins, the entire Church is deeply hurt,” he stated.