FLDOH anti-trans guidance attacks “low-quality evidence” for gender-affirming care, citing low-quality evidence for conversion therapy
In their 2022 document “Treatment of Gender Dysphoria for Children and Adolescents”, the Florida Department of Health writes:
Systematic reviews on hormonal treatment for young people show a trend of low-quality evidence, small sample sizes, and medium to high risk of bias.
Hruz (2019) is not a systematic review
The linked “systematic reviews” is actually one four-page article by Paul W. Hruz (2019) in the Catholic Medical Association’s journal The Linacre Quarterly, and it is not a systematic review. It broadly encompasses the spectrum of gender-affirming care across all ages and does not specifically focus on “hormonal treatment for young people”. The journal has published it as a “research article”, and it is an unorganized continuous wall of text:
It does not possess any of the expected features of a systematic review, such as a specific research question or discussion of search criteria for inclusion of studies (Robertson-Malt, 2014). The FLDOH has erred in labeling this a “systematic review”. Continue reading