A National Health Service trust in England has said that milk produced by “trans women” — i.e., men taking drugs to induce lactation — is “comparable to [breast milk] produced following the birth of a baby.”
The University of Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust (USHT) made the claim in a letter to campaigners. Naturally, some have challenged its assertions.
Lottie Moore, of the Policy Exchange, which uncovered the letter, said the trust “is unbalanced and naïve in its assertion that the secretions produced by a male on hormones can nourish an infant in the way a mother’s breast milk can”.
USHT has removed the webpage where the guidance was published, but now links to an external website, La Leche League, which states it “supports everyone who wants to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals”.
Maya Forstater, the director of campaign group Sex Matters, said: “For a chief executive and medical director of an NHS trust to prioritise trans identities over what is best for mothers and their babies is deeply disturbing.”
And to think that some “chestfeeding” men do so for sexual gratification.