Men who call themselves women are also targeted because it is possible to give them hormones to trigger the production of breast milk. The CDC guidelines have caused an outcry, not only because of their “political” aspect, but also because they do not contain any warnings about the risks to babies being fed this way.
Transgender or male lactation is one of those areas where science and caution are no longer appropriate in light of the ideological objective. By trying to blur the boundaries between men and women, one inevitably arrives at aberrations that no one can dispute without being accused of “transphobia.”
It is a question of words. The CDC is proposing not using the term “breastfeeding,” but instead using the term “chestfeeding,” which is considered less “gendered.”
The CDC states in a long catalogue for health workers, especially in emergencies, that more “inclusive” terms should be used for breastfeeding: “Use terms that encompass all gender identities, such as pregnant person, lactating parent, and lactating person.”
The guidelines also state, “Transgender and non-binary persons may give birth and breastfeed at the chest (chestfeed).” And to those men who did not birth an infant: “You don’t have to have a baby to breastfeed through the chest.”
Another CDC chapter on “transgender people” states that health workers need to be familiar with the “medical, emotional, and social” aspects of gender transitions and how to help affected families “maximize milk production” and to obtain “drugs to start lactation or to avoid those that inhibit it.”
These recommendations completely ignore the warnings of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency for drugs), especially regarding the hormones offered to men to “mimic” changes in a woman’s body at the end of pregnancy and after the birth of a child.
Thus domperidone, used against nausea and which increases the level of prolactin (the milk hormone) can pass into the milk and cause irregularities in the heart rhythm in the infant. This risk does not seem to frighten men who play at being the mother or women who want to be men without giving up the joys of maternity.
Interviewed by the Daily Mail, Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, is outraged that “we have no idea of the long-term effects on the child” when the trans woman who feeds the child uses “all kinds of hormones outside of approved indications.”
Jane Orient notes that “all of this has become so politicized that all sorts of things can be done as long as they meet a politically approved goal.”
In addition to the dangers associated with the drugs used, lactation via the chest is a problem in itself. Dr Stuart Fischer, interviewed by the Daily Mail, says it is “very hard to believe” that such lactation is comparable to that of biological mothers (as milk evolves with the child’s age and even during each feeding), and highlights the complete lack of hindsight as to the long-term effects of these practices on infants.
Republican Senator Dr. Roger Marshall, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has delivered more than 5,000 babies, said: “Colostrum is a true, nutrient-rich breast milk, loaded with antibodies and antioxidants, that offers vulnerable newborns the protection passed on by their mothers… The liquid produced by biological males does not provide all the nutrients or calories that growing newborns need.”
“You should never encourage a biological man, filled with hormones and a combination of other drugs that have not been studied, that could harm a baby, to breastfeed. When will the left wake up and realize what it is doing to our country?” he asked.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading federal agency for public health protection, has just published information supporting breastfeeding by transgender people with advice on taking medication for women who have undergone breast removal as part of surgical “transitions.”