FTC Sues Trans Medical Group for Misleading Guidance on Gender Transition for Minors
The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the world’s leading medical organization devoted to transgender health care, accusing the group of misleading parents into seeking dangerous, experimental medical procedures to alleviate their child’s gender dysphoria.
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WPATH, an international nonprofit that claims to be dedicated to “promot[ing] evidence based care, education, research, public policy, and respect in transgender health,” publishes highly influential guidelines for physicians on the efficacy and necessity of gender interventions.
The lawsuit, filed by the Federal Trade Commission and four Republican-led states — Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas — claims that WPATH’s guidelines violate the FTC Act, a consumer protection law that protects against deceptive acts or practices.
“Today, the FTC filed a lawsuit against WPATH alleging that the organization made false and unsubstantiated claims regarding the necessity, effectiveness and safety of puberty blockers, hormones and sex-change surgeries,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a press release. “Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services.”
According to the complaint, WPATH misled consumers by removing all age-restriction suggestions for breast amputation or penis removal, from its “Standards of Care” document, clinical guidelines created to guide health-care professionals in providing safe and effective care for gender-dysphoric patients.
The complaint also details conversations between doctors and patients’ parents, in which clinicians ask parents if they “would rather have a live daughter or a dead son,” referencing the “lifesaving” nature of gender interventions such as hormones and puberty blockers, endorsed by WPATH guidelines. Other groups, like the Trevor Project, rely on similar talking points, suggesting there is a correlation between withholding gender intervention procedures and patient suicides. Yet an emerging body of research undercuts those oft-cited claims.
In 2024, the nonprofit Environmental Progress released internal communications which revealed that members of WPATH had admitted privately that gender-transition surgeries and hormone therapies are largely experimental and that minors struggle to give informed consent before undergoing the life-altering procedures — a sharp departure from the group’s publicly stated support for such procedures.
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WPATH’s “Standards of Care” document includes guidelines endorsing access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for minors diagnosed with “gender incongruence,” given the patient displays “the emotional and cognitive maturity required to provide informed consent/assent for the treatment.”
“This is the second time this year the Trump Administration has abused the authority of its agencies to interfere with Americans’ rights to seek and obtain the healthcare that should be decided between a patient and their physician,” WPATH said in a statement reacting to the suit. “The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is not a medical provider and has no place interfering with the process of individualized medical decision-making and. The FTC also does not have any jurisdiction over WPATH and its noncommercial speech. The state claims have similar factual and legal flaws.”
The FTC also alleges WPATH failed to disclose potential side effects, including “mood disturbances, vocal pain and limitations, pelvic pain, clitoral discomfort, vaginal pain, inability to orgasm, incontinence and erectile pain.”
This year, The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) was the first major medical organization to come out against pediatric gender interventions, suggesting all related surgeries and procedures occur after a patient is at least 19 years old.
“WPATH has long represented itself as the final authority for the gender-related treatment of children, advancing profit-driven ideology unsupported by science and withholding crucial information from children, parents and doctors,” Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers said in a press release. “We’re proud to work with the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to hold WPATH accountable for deceiving parents and medical professionals and causing harm to children in Nebraska and nationwide.”
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