A National Health Service (NHS) Trust has sparked outrage after a letter leaked claiming the milk produced by trans-identified males is “just as good for babies as a mother’s breast milk.”
In addition to describing the drug-induced nipple discharge produced by males on cross-sex hormones as “human milk,” the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHST) also called it the “ideal food for infants.”
The UHST – which is responsible for the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Worthing Hospital, and Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital – drafted the letter after a complaint was filed about the Trust’s gender identity policies.
Conflating breast milk with “the induced lactation of biological men,” the UHST’s medical director stated in the letter that “there is clear and overwhelming evidence that human milk is the ideal food for infants.”
It continues: “The evidence which is available demonstrates that the milk is comparable to that produced following the birth of a baby.”
News of the NHS Trust’s disturbing letter enraged users on X (formerly Twitter), who are outraged that a medical institution would deny biological reality in the name of inclusivity.
“This statement from the NHS is disgusting and perverse,” wrote UK Heritage Party leader David Kurten. “No baby should ever be given a man’s nipple.”
“Wtf is this,” simply commented The Publica co-founder Sydney Watson.
Others, such as gender critical commentator Ani O’Brien, called for the termination of those responsible for using language that prioritizes “ideology over the health of babies.”
In addition to warning about how unethical it is to allow children to consume untested nipple discharge from trans-identified males, Labour MP Rosie Duffield decried the letter’s use of the term “human milk” as an attempt to erase women.
“Babies can’t be used as guinea pigs for someone else’s lifestyle choice,” she said. “When a man has not and cannot grow a baby, why on earth are we pandering to this? Who does it benefit? Not the children. We wouldn’t do any other medical experiments on babies. Breast milk made by a baby’s biological mother is tailor-made for that baby.”
According to The Telegraph, the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust was the first in Britain to replace the word breastfeeding with “chest feeding” in 2021 and created clinical and language guidelines “supporting trans and non-binary birthing people.”
Although critics have expressed concern about the safety of allowing children to consume chemically-induced chest discharge from males, the UHST maintains that “the practice is safe.” It also suggests parents taking Domperidone, the drug used to induce lactation, seek guidance about “the possibility of the medication being transferred to the baby” as well as any negative impacts it may have on the child’s health.
Despite complaints, the letter defends the use of medication to induce lactation, adding that “human milk is meant to be neutral and is not gender-biased.”
“We stand by the facts of the letter and the cited evidence supporting them,” added the USHT.
