BUZZ
A University of Michigan cardiologist and medical school professor said his employer is right to pause pediatric transgender procedures, given the minimal evidence in favor and the damage they can cause.
Dr. Venkatesh Murthy recently wrote an essay for Independent Women criticizing the public university’s faculty senate for passing a nonbinding resolution that called on Michigan Medicine to reverse its decision.
The faculty senate is comprised of professors from across the university, “many of whom are not doctors and are unaffiliated with the medical school,” as Murthy (pictured) pointed out in his essay.
The hospital system announced in August it would no longer inject gender-confused kids with drugs to make them look like the opposite sex or block puberty, due to federal directives.
The decision was correct, according to Murthy, due to the weak evidence in support of the interventions.
“While major U.S. medical organizations continue to endorse ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, the evidence base for these interventions in children and adolescents is increasingly recognized as weak,” Dr. Murthy wrote.
Murthy cited the Cass Review, a comprehensive study undertaken by England’s National Health Service, which called for a pause on handing out transgender drugs to minors.
“The review found most studies backing ‘gender-affirming care’ to be of low quality, with insufficient long-term data on outcomes like mental health improvement, rates of detransition, or risks such as bone density loss, infertility, and potential cancer links,” he wrote.
Murthy also drew on his experience as a cardiologist to warn about the harms of the chemical interventions.
He wrote:
As a cardiologist, I am particularly alarmed by the cardiovascular risks these interventions pose to developing young hearts. Cross-sex hormones, such as estrogen in biological males or testosterone in biological females, are known to alter lipid profiles , increase blood clotting, and elevate the risk of thromboembolic events, stroke, myocardial infarction (heart attack), and hypertension.
Multiple studies and reviews have documented these dangers: estrogen therapy may raise the likelihood of venous thromboembolism and ischemic events, while testosterone can worsen blood cholesterol and promote abnormal thickening of the heart muscle (cardiac hypertrophy). In adolescents, whose cardiovascular systems are still maturing, these effects could compound over a lifetime, potentially leading to premature heart disease—the leading cause of death worldwide.
There is also a political issue at play – Murthy said his colleagues are out of touch with most Americans who oppose surgical and chemical interventions on gender-confused kids.
“At a taxpayer-funded public university like ours, especially one in a purple state, faculty governance should reflect not just internal ideologies but responsibility to scientific evidence and the communities we serve,” he wrote. “Michigan voters and families deserve assurance that the doctors who serve them at their public medical center do no harm and respect their views.”
He called on his colleagues to acknowledge the lack of trust people have with medical professionals and to stay humble.
Murthy is also no stranger to controversy. In 2021, he publicly challenged an academic paper that was used, briefly, to pause college football, due to concerns about COVID and heart problems. One of his Michigan Medicine peers co-authored the paper but Murthy, along with other scientists, challenged the findings.
