First-year medical students at Georgetown University's School of Medicine were required to take a class last year teaching that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and irreversible surgery are the preferred treatments for gender dysphoria.
In a requisite 2021 pre-clinical course about human sexuality and the reproductive system, medical students at the oldest Roman Catholic medical school in the U.S. were instructed that such interventions are the "only way to help" many transgender people "‘fix’ their bodies," according to material from the class obtained by The Spectator World.
In a guest lecture about "transgender health care" delivered by Dr. David S. Reitman, an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics who is also a pediatrician at Georgetown University Hospital, students were told that patients experiencing gender dysphoria are likely to attempt suicide if they are not provided such pharmaceutical and surgical treatments, according to images of his lecture slides published by the outlet.
Reitman's lecture also devoted significant attention to gender dysphoria among children, claiming symptoms could manifest "as early as infancy" and that a young child's potential transgender identity could be discerned based on clothing, toy and hairstyle preferences.
Reitman presented puberty-blocking drugs as a clinically acceptable treatment for children experiencing gender dysphoria, which he claimed will prevent them from "unwanted secondary gender/sex characteristics." The pediatrician, who also heads the student health center at American University, claimed that blocking the development of such characteristics could prevent the need for future surgical interventions.
Reitman's lecture, while noting a lack of long-term studies on such drugs, did mention adverse effects such as decreased bone density, but maintained that such treatments are "fully" and "completely reversible."
Regarding cross-sex hormone treatment, which Reitman described as "gender-affirming," the slides from his lecture acknowledged their adverse effects, such as liver dysfunction and pancreatitis from female hormones in biological males, and pelvic pain from male hormones in biological females, but still affirmed such treatment as "medically necessary."
Reitman's lecture slides concluded with graphic images of surgical interventions for adults and pointed out how such patients might need to freeze their eggs or sperm if they wish to have children post-op.
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A phone call from Fox News Digital to Reitman's office went unanswered. Georgetown University did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment by time of publication.
Multiple Catholic ethicists who spoke to The Spectator World slammed Georgetown University for allowing such a lecture at a Catholic institution, with one accusing the school of violating Catholic ethical standards and "[causing] enormous damage by its blatant hypocrisy."
In May, several medical professionals told Fox News Digital they have seen rates of gender dysphoria soar among their young patients in recent years, but that many of their colleagues are reluctant to speak publicly against transgender ideology for fear of both professional and personal retaliation.
