In a Feb. 9 blog post, a former case worker at the clinic, Jamie Reed, said she left in November 2022 because the hospital was, in her view, “permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care.”
In addition to putting numerous minors on puberty blockers and other drugs, Reed claimed her former clinic “regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery” and performed at least one double mastectomy on a minor at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. In a two-year period from 2020 to 2022, the clinic “initiated medical transition for more than 600 children. About 74% of these children were assigned female at birth,” Reed wrote in a sworn statement published by the Missouri attorney general’s office. She said she observed numerous young people being pushed toward transgender surgery amid serious comorbidities such as mental illness and depression.
“During my time at the center, I personally witnessed center health care providers lie to the public and to parents of patients about the treatment, or lack of treatment, and the effects of treatment provided to children at the center,” Reed wrote in her affidavit.
“I witnessed staff at the center provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children without complete informed parental consent and without an appropriate or accurate assessment of the needs of the child. I witnessed children experience shocking injuries from the medication the center prescribed. And I saw the center make no attempt or effort to track adverse outcomes of patients after they left the center.”
In her blog post at the website thefp.com, Reed said over the four years she was at the clinic she observed a notable increase in the number of teenage girls wishing to “transition” and become boys.
After Reed went public with her allegations, Washington University said in a statement that it was “alarmed” by what was alleged.