Biological males who want to “chestfeed” their infants can get advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Multiple articles on the CDC website provide guidance. One article states “an individual does not need to have given birth to breastfeed or chestfeed.” It also encourages health care providers to “use terms that are inclusive of all gender identities such as ‘pregnant person,’ ‘breastfeeding parent,’ and ‘lactating person.’”
‘Maximizing Milk Production’
A section of the CDC’s Q &A page addressed to individuals who have had breasts surgically removed or implanted asks, “Can transgender parents who have had breast surgery breastfeed or chestfeed their infants?”
The response reads, “Yes. Some transgender parents who have had breast/top surgery may wish to breastfeed, or chestfeed (a term used by some transgender and non-binary parents), their infants.”
The CDC goes on to encourage health care providers to help these parents in “maximizing milk production,” “supplementing with pasteurized donor human milk or formula,” and “finding appropriate lactation management support, peer support, and/or emotional support.” It also encourages them to help find medications that induce lactation and avoid those that inhibit lactation.
For patients who don’t want to chest/breastfeed, the CDC encourages health providers to help them suppress lactation. The articles include no warnings or cautions regarding the health risks of transgender chest/breastfeeding to the parent or baby—or the health risks of transgender surgery in general.
Hormone Treatments
The Daily Mail reported men can take hormone medications to induce a substance similar to breast milk, but they can sometimes cause heart issues in infants.
“All persons have mammary glands and nipples,” says Marilyn Singleton, M.D., an anesthesiologist and visiting fellow at Do No Harm. “What biological men do not have are the necessary hormones to produce lactation; so, they must be given various drugs and hormones to actually produce milk.”
According to Singleton, the study of transgender parents chest/breastfeeding their infants is an emerging area, and “even the CDC doesn’t know its immediate and long-term safety.”
Bandwagon Effect
The CDC and major medical societies are in lockstep with the transgender craze, says Singleton.
“I’ve never seen medicine jump on a bandwagon with so little information on the psychological and long-term effects of trying to alter one’s physical appearance and hormone production so dramatically,” said Singleton.
“I sympathize with the CDC’s attempt to treat everyone with respect, but the CDC is supposed to be a scientific organization. As such, it should limit itself to information that clearly ‘does no harm.’ The CDC, like so many other government bureaucracies (IRS, FBI, Border Patrol), operates on ideology rather than its stated mission.”
Harry Painter (harry@harrypainter.com) writes from Oklahoma.
Internet info:
“Breast Surgery,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated July 9, 2023: https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/maternal-or-infant-illnesses/breast-surgery.html
“Health Equity Considerations,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated July 9, 2023: https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/emergencies-infant-feeding/health-equity.html
For a related article, see
Medical Students Pressured to Go Woke
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