If you enter “Ferring Pharmaceuticals” into a search engine, you will get stories about their gene therapy for bladder cancer along with multiple entries for the company itself, including career opportunities. What you won’t find is a story about the company’s involvement in puberty blockers and the study that it funded. But the Post Millennial has a piece asserting that Ferring Pharmaceuticals did just that in 2006.
The piece cites an article by investigative journalist Jan Kuitenbrouwer and media sociologist Peter Vasterman that was published at the end of last month on the website NRC. The article is about the “Dutch protocol.” This involved using puberty blockers on adolescents who were struggling with gender dysphoria and was adopted as part of gender care by clinics around the world. The Dutch protocol was based on a 2006 study that, according to the NRC article, was “deeply flawed.” The study followed 55 children who took puberty blockers and then cross-sex hormones and reported “positive results.” Ferring, the article states, funded the study and also markets the puberty blocker Triptorelin. The NRC piece states that among the problems with the study, there was no control group and there were several participants that the study lost track of during follow-ups. The follow-up period was also short.
For our VIPs: Experts: There Is No Biological Evidence for ‘Gender Identity’
In a related article, Genspect co-founder Stella O’Malley wrote that the Dutch are finally waking up to the flaws in the protocol and that the article in NRC should be “the beginning of the end” of the idea that clinics should provide children irreversible gender treatments. She takes note of the rising number of detransitioners that can no longer be ignored, even by the clinics that have no real idea of the actual number of detransitioners.
Up until 2010 the Dutch clinic was like other gender clinics around the world, a largely unknown medical centre that treated an average of 200 patients per year, among them were roughly 60 children and young people. Then, reflecting trends all over the western world, a startling uptick began, and by around 2013, the numbers had suddenly doubled and continued to increase rapidly. Now in 2022, there are more than 5,000 people in treatment – 1,600 of which are minors, and almost 6,000 people on the waiting list for treatment.
The 2006 Dutch study which first outlined the approach which became known as the “Dutch protocol” was sponsored by Ferring pharmaceuticals, who marketed Triptorelin- a puberty blocker (the millions of dollars of profits involved in this industry have yet to be officially documented). As the numbers were initially very small, few took notice of this niche market, however as the numbers began to grow, sharp-eyed women noticed the issues related to blocking children’s sexual development- and pioneering organisations 4th Wave Now and Transgender Trend decried these life-changing medical interventions on highly vulnerable children.
O’Malley also notes that one of the children in the study died as a result of gender-affirming surgery. “Transgender Trend” is a reference to an article on the site of the same name. That piece discussed the use of puberty blockers and outlined the problems associated with them. Those problems included “freezing” a child in prolonged childhood, which among other things could make a vaginoplasty more difficult. Other issues are infertility and the inability to harvest sperm for the future if the transition occurs while the boy is very young. Risks can also include breast growth, liver damage, depression, and lost bone density. All in children. Children whose bodies are being irreversibly changed before they have even finished growing.
Earlier, Matt wrote a story about the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine’s study that showed that there is no biological evidence supporting the idea of gender dysphoria. He also talks about the transgender industry that has been created as a result of this fad. The fad itself has been chalked up to a variety of “supporters.” And we can add to those pharmaceutical companies who are interested in making a buck out of confused children, and misguided and social-climbing parents.
Ferring wasn’t interested in compassion, support, or being an “ally.” It has a product to sell. In July of last year, Joe Biden’s HHS proposed a rule to add “gender-affirming care” to Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid. So yes, there is gold to be mined from children and their families.
One day, enough people may wake up and realize that they were sold a bill of goods and that they were led to make choices that devastated their bodies and souls. And then, the lawsuits will start and the tables will be turned. But at that point, no amount of money will be able to restore what has been lost.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member