White House orders NIH to research trans 'regret' and 'detransition'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NPR

April 11, 20254:20 AM ET


The Trump administration has ordered the National Institutes of Health to study the physical and mental health effects of undergoing gender transition, according to an internal NIH memo obtained by NPR. The directive was shared with NPR by two current NIH staffers who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. It is from acting NIH Director Mark Memoli, and says the NIH must study the impact of "social transition and/or chemical and surgical mutilation" among children who transition.

Specifically, the White House wants the NIH to study "regret" and "detransition" among children and adults who have transitioned. "This is very important to the President and the Secretary," the memo says, referring to President Trump and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It adds: "They would like us to have funding announcements within the next six months to get this moving."

The NIH now has to decide the scope and design of the project, how it will be funded, and which researchers will conduct it. The plan is causing deep concern among many researchers and in the LGBTQ+ community. NPR discussed the memo with some researchers and advocates.

"What they're looking for is a political answer not a scientific one," says Adrian Shanker, who served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy at HHS under President Biden. "That should be an alarm for everyone who cares about the scientific integrity of the National Institutes of Health." Among the red flags in the directive is the language, Shanker and others say. "Chemical or surgical mutilation? These are deeply offensive terms," says Harry Barbee, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/10/nx-s1-5355126/trump-nih-trans-regret-detransition-research

[Basso8vb]

1. Completely made up bullshit.

Fuck these fucking nazi fucks.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Psychologists, propagandists, scientists, political consultants on both sides

are going to have a war. If you throw enough money at anything you can find someone to come up with your desired conclusions. That's the problem with cost-benefit analyses, and in my view that's part of where this is going.

[Eugene]

3. A junk science mandate. How authoritaian.

Next directive: "research" how LGBTQ is "disordered," and turn the clock back 75 years.

[prodigitalson]

4. 1st step in the new scientific method

1. Make a conclusion

[thesquanderer]

5. Studying only negative outcomes will assure a report that shows 100% negative outcomes. (n/t)