Overview

• The agency invoked Sections 5 and 12 of the FTC Act on July 28 to examine whether providers failed to disclose material risks or made unsubstantiated claims about gender-affirming treatments for those under 19.
• Consumers and experts have until September 26 to submit comments and evidence of false or unsupported claims, drawing on firsthand accounts, advertisements, social media and research.
• The inquiry follows a July public workshop that featured detransitioners, medical whistleblowers and critics and stems from President Trump’s January executive order ending federal support for youth transition care.
• The Justice Department has issued nearly 20 subpoenas to clinics and drugmakers alleging health care fraud, false statements and misbranding in minor transition services.
• Major children’s hospitals—including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Stanford Medicine and UPMC—have paused or discontinued youth gender-affirming care amid mounting federal enforcement threats.