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New HHS Report Urges ‘Exploratory Therapy’ for Transgender Youth

01 May 2025

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report on Thursday, May 1, aiming to discredit gender-affirming-care and instead encouraging transgender and nonbinary individuals to try “exploratory therapy”—or psychotherapy—and stating that mental health care alone is a way to treat gender dysphoria in children.

“There is a dearth of research on psychotherapeutic approaches to managing gender dysphoria in children and adolescents. This is due in part to the mischaracterization of such approaches as ‘conversion therapy,’ the report said. “Psychotherapy is a noninvasive alternative to endocrine and surgical interventions for the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria.”

Though the report argues that this “exploratory therapy” is not the same as the long practice of “conversion therapy”—which is a practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity—advocates see little difference.

“This report not only rejects health care best practices for transgender people, it goes a step further by recommending conversion therapy, though under a new, rebranded name, ‘exploratory therapy,’” said Casey Pick, director of law and policy at the LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Trevor Project, in an emailed statement. “Despite the report’s claims, this is, in fact, the same harmful practice of conversion therapy, just using friendlier language. We urge this Administration to respect and support people for who they are—and to let families and doctors make decisions based on what keeps people healthy, not government ideology.”

Read More: Is Conversion Therapy the New Frontier for Anti-LGBTQ+ Groups?

The report arrives following a Trump Executive Order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which threatens to cut federal funding to hospitals and medical providers that provide gender-affirming-care to people ages 19 or younger. The Executive Order directed HHS to release a report on the existing literature for treatment for children with gender dysphoria in 90 days, which fell on April 28.