In an amicus brief filed with the Iowa Supreme Court in the case Vasquez and Covington v. Iowa DHS, the Iowa Medical Society joined other medical organizations encouraging taxpayer-funded sex-change surgeries, among other trans theories.
The Iowa Medical Society is the statewide professional association for Iowa physicians, residents and medical students.
The brief states that the healthcare community’s understanding of what it means to be transgender has “advanced greatly over the past century.”
“It is now understood that being transgender implies no impairment in a person’s judgment, stability or general social or vocational capabilities,” they wrote.
It goes on to say the “international consensus among healthcare professionals” regarding treatment for gender dysphoria is to help the patient to live in accordance with their gender identity. Treatments may include:
*Counseling
*Social transition
*Hormone therapy
*Gender-affirming surgeries
The brief claims such treatment is “highly effective in reducing or eliminating the incongruence and associated distress between a person’s gender identity and assigned sex at birth.”
These healthcare leaders made the astonishing claim that “a transgender man is a man. A transgender woman is a woman.”
“Gender identity is distinct from and does not predict sexual orientation,” the group wrote. “Transgender people, like cisgender people, may identify as heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual or asexual.”
This would mean a transgender man (assigned woman at birth) who is attracted to other women would actually be considered heterosexual to this medical community.
While individuals who were “not gender conforming” were often viewed as “perverse or deviant,” the claim is the professions now recognize being transgender “implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability or general social or vocational capabilities.”
And, in addition, stigmatizing transgender people “causes significant harm.”
Gender identity “cannot be ascertained immediately after birth,” according to the brief.
“Many children develop stability in their gender identity between ages three and four,” it states.
The brief goes through how gender dysphoria is diagnosed in adults. And it offers this guidance for children experiencing the onset of puberty:
“Treatment may include medication to prevent further progression of puberty (puberty blockers”).”
“This reversible treatment allows children with gender dysphoria to delay the development of secondary sex characteristics that do not match their gender identity, giving them additional time to decide whether hormone treatment to feminize or masculinize the body is appropriate,” it states.
For some people, hormone treatment to help develop secondary sex characteristics consistent with their gender identity “may be medically necessary,” it adds.
Healthcare providers “widely recognize” that for those with severe gender dysphoria, “it is impossible” to manage distress with psychotherapy and/or hormone therapy alone.
Surgical procedures may include chest reconstruction surgery for transgender men, breast augmentation for transgender women, or genital surgeries such as removing the testicles “in women who are transgender.”
The brief claims that “decades of clinical evidence” show the procedures to be effective in reducing gender dysphoria and improving mental health.
Those treatments mentioned are “not elective treatments” when prescribed by a medical professional, the brief claims.
“For transgender patients with gender dysphoria these treatments are medically necessary and may be urgent,” the brief states.
The brief says it is “highly cost-effective” for state insurance plans to cover gender-affirming care.
