225186 Law and Leuprolide: Structural and Clinical Issues in the Management of Gender Dysphoria in Children

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 : 5:15 PM - 5:30 PM

Jason A. Smith, MTS, JD , Division of Public Health Law and Bioethics, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT
Ross D. Silverman, JD, MPH , Medical Humanities, SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL
Lupron has been used effectively to treat transgendered young people. This paper explores the legal and ethical justifications for the use of Lupron and similar drugs in the clinical setting and provides a rationale for their continued use with informed consent. The paper also discusses the structural and policy issues implicated with the use of drugs to treat transgender children and adolescents. Specifically, as currently structured, to receive coverage for therapies, gender identity disorder must remain a pathology. To remove gender identity disorder as a pathology risks inscribing persistent health disparities by limiting effective therapies to only those who can afford them without insurance coverage. Both positions are problematic. The presentation offers different legal and policy solutions within the public health law framework.

Learning Areas:
Basic medical science applied in public health
Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the use of leuprolide (Lupron) in the management of children with gender dysphoria. 2. Discuss the legal issues surrounding the use of leuprolide in a clinical setting. 3. Discuss the structural and policy issues implicated in the management of gender dysphoria in children with leuprolide.

Keywords: Law, Gender

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The presentation includes a discussion of the use of Lupron to delay puberty in children with gender dysmorphia. This is an off-label use but recommended as an appropriate therapy for this population. This is an analysis of the legal issues involved. No o

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a public health lawyer and ethicist. I am also a professor of public health law. This topic focuses on these areas.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4364.0: Disparities and public health law