EXCLUSIVE: LA’s TikTok doctor for trans kids as young as seven admits that puberty blockers and hormones CAN cause bone disease and infertility, at private student seminar
- Dr Erin Baroni styles herself as TikTok’s ‘QueerMD’ and treats trans children
- In a private online medical seminar, she acknowledged that there are drawbacks
- Opinion is divided over whether trans kids do better with drugs or counselling
- Read about how MTV’s 2016 trans poster child now regrets drugs and surgery
A California pediatrician for transgender kids has admitted that the puberty blockers and hormones she gives her young patients may lead to bone disease or leave them infertile, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Dr Erin Baroni, a pediatrician and instructor at UCLA, who styles herself as TikTok’s ‘QueerMD’, addressed the drawbacks in a private online workshop for medical students, which DailyMail.com was able to attend.
The side effects of these drugs on young patients are known, but the doctors who prescribe them seldom publicly discuss the downsides, which have become a hot-button issue in US politics.
In the seminar, Dr Baroni said puberty blockers can weaken a trans patients’ bones and cause osteoporosis, while cross-sex hormones can leave both boys and girls infertile.
‘With the bone density concerns and fertility issues … we don’t see these as things that are contraindications to treatment or something that really impedes treatment,’ Dr Baroni told the students.
Dr Erin Baroni styles herself as the QueerMD for her thousands of TikTok followers
DailyMail.com gained access to a private online Pride month UCLA seminar attended by dozens of medical students
We ‘try to outline what we might be monitoring: risks, benefits, reversible, irreversible things, and really have a thoughtful conversation about things from a true medical and study standpoint,’ she added.
The Los Angeles-based doctor said osteoporosis and infertility may be outweighed by a trans patient’s other needs.
Patients could be at risk of suicide or unable to attend school due to their gender issues, she said.
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‘We’re always taking into account what is happening for the individual in the room,’ said Dr Baroni.
‘How some of these interventions and affirming things we can do are going to help that person function better, while also knowing the effects of treatment.’
Dr Baroni, who comes from Texas, was addressing dozens of medical students in an online session hosted by UCLA’s Pritzker Center, which works to improve the health of children and families, as part of Pride month.
She’s connected to UCLA clinics in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, and provides sex-reassignment care to patients aged from seven to 72. Puberty blockers are not used on trans patients until they reach 11 or 12, she said.
Dr Baroni’s TikTok medical advice channel, QueerMD, has thousands of followers.
The number of young Americans who identify as trans and seek sex-reassignment drugs and surgery has shot up in recent years, adding fuel to America’s culture and identity wars between liberals and conservatives.
Advocates for gender-affirming care, as it is known, say the rise is due to more awareness of gender dysphoria and support among clinicians.
But some experts, conservatives, and parents warn of an ideologically-driven fad.
They also call the treatments ‘experimental’ and warn of debilitating side effects.
Sex-reassignment treatments can lead to osteoporosis, a bone disease that develops when bone mineral density and bone mass decreases
Dr Erin Baroni treats patients from age seven to 72 and operates out of a clinic in Santa Monica
Milo has stopped taking testosterone and regrets a transition that left her with painful medical problems
England’s National Health Service this month drastically cut back the availability of puberty blockers over safety concerns — a step now taken by several European health authorities.
In the US, the issue has become a political fight between Democrats and Republicans, who have passed laws against sex-reassignment care for children in 20 states this year.
Many have been challenged in the courts. A federal judge struck down the Arkansas law as unconstitutional in a landmark ruling this month.
But cases of medical problems are becoming more common.
A young woman called Milo this month posted an online video about how weekly testosterone jabs from the age of 15 left her with an atrophied vagina and she needed a hysterectomy.
‘It turned out to be a big mistake,’ said Milo, who has decided to ‘detransition’.
In her YouTube post, she speaks of bitterly regretting a transition that’s left her scarred, hairy and most likely infertile.
It’s not known exactly how many people change their minds and detransition, but estimates range from between 1 and 25 percent of trans people.
Detransition Subreddit, a popular online forum, has some 48,100 followers.
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