The CDC is encouraging biological males to “chestfeed” newborns in guidance for transitioning individuals, but some doctors are criticizing the agency for failing to mention possible risks posed to infants.
“Transgender and nonbinary-gendered individuals may give birth and breastfeed or feed at the chest (chestfeed),” the CDC announced on its official website. The CDC further claimed that an individual can successfully “chestfeed” without having given birth to the baby.
In each case, the CDC encourages transgender individuals wishing to “chestfeed” their infant to speak with healthcare providers “familiar with medical, emotional, and social aspects of gender transitions to provide optimal family-centered care and meet the nutritional needs of the infant.” (RELATED: ‘Human Milk’: Midwives Given New Trans-Inclusive Vocabulary Including ‘Chestfeeding’ And ‘Birthing Parent’)
CDC gives guidance for trans people ‘chestfeeding’ kids, accused of failing to consider possible health risks https://t.co/gFoSyT9cWH pic.twitter.com/3rLey5L5Id
— New York Post (@nypost) July 6, 2023
That guidance, however, was met with criticism by some doctors who pointed out that in the CDC’s “Health Equity Considerations” guidance for transgender people, nothing is mentioned about the potential risks for the infant.
“We have no idea what the long-term effects on the child will be if a breastfeeding trans woman uses all kinds of off-label hormones,” Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the conservative Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, told the Daily Mail. “A lot of people are pushing for off-label use of a drug… it’s become so politicized that you can do all kinds of things for a politically approved purpose.”
“You can’t fool Mother Nature,” said Dr. Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, according to the outlet.
Fischer further explained that the long-term effects of hormone-induced lactation have not been widely studied. “It’s an emerging field, to put it mildly,” he stated, according to the Daily Mail. “This is the kind of thing where politics and science are uncomfortably put together.”
Biological men who transitioned often use what is known as the Newman-Goldfarb protocols to help induce lactation, the outlet reported. The Newman-Goldfarb protocols were initially developed to help women who adopted or had babies via surrogacy breastfeed their children, according to the outlet. By using birth control pills and anti-nausea medicine domperidone, as well as utilizing breast stimulation with breast pumps, the protocol mimics the hormonal changes in women that occur during pregnancy and birth and can sometimes lead to lactation, the outlet reported.
In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration warned breastfeeding women not to use domperidone over safety concerns, some of which were linked to heart problems. “The FDA recognizes the immense health benefits that breast milk provides for a nursing infant and is taking these actions today not to discourage women from breastfeeding but rather to warn them not to use this particular drug while they are breastfeeding,” the agency stated at the time.
A study produced by the National Institutes of Health in May 2023 found that findings were inconsistent when researchers studied the amount of domperidone excreted into breastmilk but maintained the amount was relatively low and harmless.
Professor Jenny Gamble, a midwifery expert at Coventry University in the UK, further argued for the safety of hormone-induced lactation, telling the Daily Mail, “The milk is the same composition as for women who re-lactate or induce lactation. It’s the composition of mature breastmilk.”