Minors Can Easily Access Transgender Drugs Online, Watchdog Warns | The American Spectator

Children in the 27 states where so-called “gender-affirming” medical therapies are banned, or children whose parents disagree with their attempt to “transition” to the opposite sex, have an easy solution.

In just a few minutes, they can order online, with no prescription or guardrails, testosterone (for masculinization) or estrogen and anti-androgens (for feminization) via foreign “pharmacies” that act with no concern for U.S. law.

This is all according to a report published this week from the medical watchdog Do No Harm.

“Our report reveals how online pharmacies may enable minors to obtain cross-sex hormones with alarming ease,” said Kurt Miceli, the chief medical officer of Do No Harm. “From websites listing online vendors across the globe to marketplaces for ‘homebrewed’ hormones, we found a multitude of troubling pathways that appear to bypass basic safeguards and regulatory oversight.”

It is not as though these websites are difficult to access. A multitude of transgenderism-focused websites purposefully direct minors to these sites. With just a few minutes — and a credit card or Bitcoin — children can order testosterone or estrogen without their parents’ knowledge, potentially permanently making themselves infertile, and inviting a host of medical problems that will endure for the rest of their lives.

Puberty blockers carry a risk of bone development problems and cognitive development problems. Estrogen and androgen blockers carry risks of blood clots, stroke, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Testosterone carries risks of blood clots in the brain, pelvic pain, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

If a teen girl were to decide that she wanted to “transition” into a boy, and knew that her parents would not be on board, she could secretly order testosterone online by herself and take the drug without her parents’ knowledge.

Take a look at how children are directed to use these illegal foreign pharmacies. The website “Transgender Map” has a page called “For young visitors” that, after describing it as “fun” as changing your hairstyle, clothes, body, handwriting, and name, directs children to a page on “Medical transition for transgender youth.” They are then sent to a page on “Hormones for transgender youth,” which offers them a page on “other ways” of accessing hormones “[i]f you do not think your parent or guardian will help you.” Here, children are offered an explanation of how they can get hormones without their parents’ knowledge. The website explains that online pharmacies “can be a choice for those who do not want others to know about their hormone use.” Children are then led to a set of instructions for how to obtain hormones illegally online, as well as a list of 19 different foreign online pharmacies they can order the drugs from. The website contains the caveat “These sites are not approved, recommended, or verified by this site in any way.”

Do No Harm’s report notes, “Many of these pharmacies do not appear to require a prescription or verification of a customer’s age at any point before prompting the customer to submit payment information.”

What on earth are the FDA and DOJ doing? The “pharmacies” that are illegally importing serious drugs into the United States are hardly operating in the shadows. Their URLs are plastered all over a variety of transgender websites and forums. How difficult ought it to be to take action against unrepentant and obvious lawbreaking that brings such serious risks for the American people, particularly children?

“We urge the FDA and other federal agencies to investigate any potential unlawful sellers and, where appropriate, for states to do the same when their laws are being violated,” said Miceli.

“Protecting minors from unsafe and unregulated access to powerful cross-sex hormones,” he said, “must remain a priority.”