Their Slip Is Showing
An oopsie in the local blackout on the trans-gender controversy
Either it was a slow news day or some editor’s idea of a giggly story to plump out the web page…but, no matter, Oregon Public Broadcasting (Your Tax Dollars at Work) recently ran a dispatch with an irresistible headline…
OHSU research: The first known count of human clitoral nerve tissue has found 10,000 nerve fibers
…which revealed that a study had…
…found over 10,000 nerve fibers in the marble-sized human clitoris, the organ responsible for sexual pleasure in female bodies. Previous estimates, which put the number closer to 8,000, came from an informal study done on cows.
…which bore an uncanny word-for-word resemblance to a PR release from OHSU that hit the jackpot on the internet, with at least 43 hits on DuckDuck, including this from far-flung China…
All this was the work of Dr. Blair Peters, a professor of urology and plastic surgery at Oregon Health & Science University. On its website, OHSU even provided a magnified microphoto of one of the nerves in question…
Complicated, no?
But among the merriment, OHSU/OPB flipped open the kimono for a mad moment…
Peters obtained clitoral nerve tissue from seven adult transmasculine volunteers who underwent gender-affirming genital surgery.
…and left it at that. No more, no less. A small masterpiece of code words and Orwellian doublespeak. Which left an observant reader to wonder…well, what replaced that bundle of nerves? And what the hell is a “transmasculine,” person anyway?
You’ll have to figure that out yourselves. Didn’t interest OPB.
Editors at the other local media platforms probably dropped the OHSU release into the circular file when they encountered the little peekaboo sentence. If there is one institution immune from any local media scrutiny, it is the very busy OHSU Gender Clinic. Which is odd, considering that the topic of “gender-affirming” care is getting hotter by the minute. Not just in the US, but internationally as well.
In point of fact, this ‘stack has been the only local media outlet that has ever discussed the OHSU clinic—here and here. We were skeptical then and are even moreso now.
We have queried OHSU directly—their PR website claims they’re on duty 24/7—and have yet to receive a reply.
To figure anything out, you’ll have to read the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic website, which is part of the OHSU Transgender Health Program (THP), an “umbrella for gender-affirming services at OHSU.”
The web pages, slimmed down as the trans-argument has become more heated everywhere except in Portland, are long on success stories and comfy counseling…
Hales Skelton knew early on that he wasn’t the girl his body said he was. Skelton projects an easy confidence as he talks about his transition. Dark stubble sprouts across his face. He wears a stylish bamboo-and-leather wristwatch and a slate-gray crewneck sweater on his compact frame.
…and if anyone has ever had second thoughts about transitioning (up to and including losing a clitoris), the web pages are silent.
As for specifics, OHSU offers several numbers—take your pick: “thousands,” or 600 or 800. And that’s where OHSU ends the discussion. Here are few questions that might pop into an editor’s head…
How many kids are getting “puberty-blocker” hormone treatments or “top” and “bottom” surgeries?
How many are kids who, after age 14, are empowered by state law to make this lifetime medical decision on their own?
How many parents have been involved in their child’s decision? How many disapproved?
What’s OHSU’s view of the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine’s recent rule that the standard treatment for gender-dysphoric youth under 18 will no longer be puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, but psychotherapy.
How many OHSU child-patients receive psychotherapy—or even a mental health workup? Judging by its web site, OHSU has one “pediatric social worker,” Jess Guerriero, M.A., M.S.W., whose biography indicates, “Jess is a social worker with a second graduate degree in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons College. While at Simmons, Jess focused their work on a thesis that argued for the expansion of transgender health coverage and the movement toward therapists as partners, rather than gatekeepers, in the transition process.”
Does OHSU have any second thoughts about its policies based on the recent decision of the UK’s National Health Service to prohibit the use of puberty-blocking hormone therapies for children, with the exception of strictly monitored clinical trials.
Does OHSU have a comment on “Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s transgender clinic in Nashville has temporarily suspended gender-transition surgeries for minors after a wave of backlash.”
Does OHSU have a comment on “New Zealand’s Ministry of Health has quietly abandoned its public claim that puberty blocker drugs are a ‘safe and fully reversible’ medicine for children who declare a transgender identity and want to interrupt their normal sexual development”
Does OHSU care to comment on, “A year ago, the Finnish Health Authority [issued] new guidelines that state that psychotherapy, rather than puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, should be the first-line treatment for gender-dysphoric youth. This change occurred following a systematic evidence review, which found the body of evidence for pediatric transition inconclusive.”
And finally, since taxpayer dollars go to OHSU, might we be let in on the secret: what do these medical procedures cost (since they are not typically covered by insurance)? Vanderbilt’s clinic was shut down by a leaked video that claimed the surgeries were “huge money makers” and that in some cases, an “entire clinic is supported just by the phalloplasty.” (For non-MDs, that surgical removal of a penis.) What about OHSU?
Interesting questions, and with the boom in young women questioning their gender “identity,” you might think it would interest local media.
No such luck.
But rest assured, Dr. Peters…
….has got those nerves counted. They’re stained, photographed, counted…and dead.
I have better things to do, but I’m trying to sort this out. What does a cow clitoris have to do with a human female clitoris?
And what is a “transmasculine clitoris” vs. a female clitoris? It appears a female can have a “transmasculine clitoris” if they’re feeling … masculine. I made the mistake of Googling this subject, and now I’ll probably have all kinds of ads coming my way.
Does OPB’s Anna Griffin have a transmasculine clitoris? What about Tina Kotek? This is the kind of subject OPB’s “Think Out Loud” could take a deep dive into.
The mid-20th Century had “Reefer Madness.” We need a morality tale for our times — “Gonad Madness.”
They perfrom the surgeries in daylight. Even an enervated inquiry will get you the information needed to learn how to git 'er done. The media knows about it, the educational people know about it, the law knows about it, most parents know about it.
Yet it goes on. And on. And on. I chose not to live among those people, those voters, those citizens, those leaders and lawmakers. I can pluck a revolting obscenity from the air - sex with infants- and it is perhaps less injurious than these surgeries. Yet these surgeries go on.
Really, there isn't much to say. I suspect more often than not parents are OK with the operations. If parents are complicit or silent what can be done? Sometimes all I can think to say to contemporary activists is thanks ladies, thanks a lot.