WASHINGTON, D.C. — After years of mounting scrutiny surrounding sex-rejecting interventions, and in lockstep with President Donald J. Trump’s week-one executive order to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of minors, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the leadership of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., today released a sweeping report, “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine,’” exposing how doctors, hospitals, therapists, and powerful financial incentives helped fuel the rise of the most destructive medical scandal of our time. According to the report, the chemical and surgical mutilation of kids was fueled by a complex and dangerous set of political and financial incentives.

Vice President JD Vance has today announced a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct investigations into the systematic fraud scheme found in “Wolves in White Coats,” calling for criminal prosecution. Additionally, Secretary Kennedy has also issued a referral to the Office of Inspector General to investigate violations of the law, such as the False Claims Act. The Appendix of the report outlines the extensive list of hospitals that have gender clinics (and separate clinics) that subjected America’s children to experimental, life-altering procedures.

Independent Women contributed extensively to the report, drawing on years of work elevating the voices of detransitioners and documenting the real experiences of individuals who now face irreversible consequences from unnecessary medical interventions they underwent at a young age. “Wolves in White Coats” exposes how the medical establishment ushered in the shameful and destructive era that produced it.

HHS’s “Wolves in White Coats” report reveals allegations that doctors and therapists used false or medically unsupported diagnoses of minors to secure insurance coverage for cross-sex procedures and hormones. Between 2015 and 2025, hundreds of patients between the ages of 13 and 18 were given puberty blockers for a “precocious puberty” diagnosis. Precocious puberty refers to puberty that begins abnormally early. In many of these cases, the diagnoses appeared medically implausible, as puberty beginning around age 12 is generally considered normal development. 

Over the last ten years, these nebulous and false diagnosis coding practices for precocious puberty for patients age 13-17 have led to millions of dollars in fraudulent billing, and lifetime costs for these patients reaching billions. 

“When Americans turn to their doctors, hospitals, and insurers, they place tremendous trust that these actors will help make them healthier and happier. Transgenderism instead puts kids on a dangerous path, well before they can consent to giving up their fertility and their future,” said May Mailman, director of Independent Women’s Law Center and co-author of the report. “This report is a must-read for how our healthcare industry put elitism and downright fraud ahead of scientific integrity and patient care.”

INDEPENDENT WOMEN CONTRIBUTORS TO “WOLVES IN WHITE COATS” REPORT:

The report further alleges that hospitals and clinics financially benefited from the rapid expansion of pediatric sex-rejecting procedures. While pediatrics has traditionally been among the lower-paying medical specialties, so-called gender clinics created a new stream of patients requiring costly drugs, procedures, and potentially lifelong medical care. Procedures commonly referred to as “top” (mastectomy with chest masculinization for females and mammoplasty for males) and “bottom” (vaginoplasty for males and phalloplasty for females) surgeries reportedly generated anywhere from $12,000 to $133,000 per patient, with some clinics bringing in millions of dollars annually. Assistant Secretary Christine said, “a billion-dollar-a-year enterprise, even by conservative estimates.”

“In the past few years, more and more people have been asking how something as obviously wrong and short-sighted as pediatric gender medicine could even happen—how could everything in this country go so off the rails as to result in the medical abuse of children?” said Neeraja Deshpande, Independent Women policy analyst and contributor to the report. “This report shows that our national derangement from the past decade wasn’t entirely organic, but rather was fueled by waste, fraud, and abuse of our taxpayer dollars that bad actors have taken advantage of.”

The report also details multiple families’ and detransitioners’ allegations that they were manipulated by their doctors, who presented full affirmation as the only option. Many parents report being told some variation of: “Would you rather have a living son or a dead daughter?”—framing immediate medical intervention as the only alternative to tragedy.

The report further concludes that there have not only been massive monetary costs, but also the human cost of suffering and manipulation. Behind the billions of dollars are countless children who underwent irreversible procedures and medical treatments that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Patients describe little to no follow-up care, severed communication from providers, and a complete lack of acknowledgment surrounding complications or regret.

By elevating the voices of detransitioners through its ambassador program, Independent Women has helped drive national attention, public awareness, and policy scrutiny around the lasting harms of chemical and surgical mutilation—and demanded accountability from the institutions responsible.

INDEPENDENT WOMEN DETRANSITIONER AMBASSADORS REACT: 

Soren Aldaco: “This report is an important step forward in mapping the landscape of gender medicine. The stories it describes are real—young people led deeper into their problems instead of out of them, parents caught between the reality they know and what providers claim is true. For too long, legitimate questions and concerns were dismissed. Now, it is undeniable that harm is happening, with widespread failures in informed consent and doctor accountability. Public trust in medicine depends on the willingness to acknowledge mistakes and correct them.”

Luke Healy: “The greatest tragedy isn’t that these findings exist, but instead that it took so many damaged lives for the establishment to finally confront the atrocities they caused. An entire generation of vulnerable young people were told that these so-called medical interventions were the only path forward. I hope this report marks the beginning of accountability. Children deserve a medical system that works for their betterment, not to their detriment.”

The tragedy and trauma both Soren Aldaco and Luke Healy experienced as minors are featured prominently in “Wolves in White Coats.” Their respective stories continue today as advocates, detransitioners, and Independent Women ambassadors.

THE TIDE IS TURNING:

The irreversible harms caused by the chemical and surgical mutilation of minors continue to be exposed by those who have experienced them firsthand, contributing to a dramatic shift in the national conversation.

Over the past year, momentum has continued to build. Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, have signaled growing concern over pediatric sex-rejecting surgeries. Detransitioners have testified before the Federal Trade Commission about the serious risks and false claims around pediatric gender medicine. Under Secretary Kennedy’s direction, HHS has proposed barring hospitals that perform sex-rejecting procedures on minors from participating in Medicare and Medicaid, carrying out President Trump’s executive order to end the surgical and chemical mutilation of minors.

Just this week, President Trump directed Dr. Mehmet Oz and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to end taxpayer funding for drugs, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries that perpetuate the falsehood that children can change their sex.

Independent Women applauds this latest action as another major step toward ending taxpayer support for these practices.

But “Wolves in White Coats” makes clear that stopping the money cannot be the end of the story. The next step must be accountability.

“If doctors, hospitals, therapists, or other institutions manipulated diagnoses, improperly billed taxpayers, misled families, or placed ideology and financial incentives ahead of vulnerable children, the American people deserve answers. Those responsible must be held accountable,” said Victoria Coley, senior vice president of communications at Independent Women and contributor to the report. “The era of taxpayer-funded chemical and surgical mutilation of minors is ending. The era of accountability is just beginning.”

IDENTITY CRISIS:

Since 2022, Independent Women’s Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women, has worked to expose the irreversible harm around the chemical and surgical mutilation of minors through its “Identity Crisis: Real Stories About Escaping Gender Ideology” series. 

From severe psychological trauma to nipples peeling off, clitoral growth, trapped milk ducts, and hairy bodies, Identity Crisis documentaries bring to light the graphic stories of young adults now reckoning with the physical and emotional scars of gender ideology:

For years, these stories have exposed the consequences of the chemical and surgical mutilation of kids. Now, “Wolves in White Coats” exposes the system behind them.

  • HHS full report, “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine” HERE
  • HHS executive summary of the report HERE

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