Doctors criticize CDC for apparently offering 'chestfeeding' guidance to men: 'You can't fool Mother Nature'

Some men attempting to transition into women have publicly shared their desire to breastfeed children, and now doctors have expressed grave concerns after the CDC appears to have offered such men guidance on how to "chestfeed" without even noting the possible health risks to infants.

The website for the CDC makes several comments and suggestions which may be directed at men attempting to lactate. "Some transgender parents who have had breast/top surgery may wish to breastfeed, or chestfeed (a term used by some transgender and non-binary parents), their infants," the website says. Rather than discouraging such a practice, the CDC suggests that states, programs, and emergency responders help "these families" maximize milk production by offering them medication to stimulate lactation and perhaps "supplementing" them with "pasteurized donor human milk or formula."

Elsewhere, the CDC website notes that "an individual does not need to have given birth to breastfeed or chestfeed" and suggests that states and programs abide by an individual's "preferred terminology," using words such "as nursing, chestfeeding, or bodyfeeding" rather than the traditional term "breastfeeding."

Though these suggestions from the CDC apply to women who have undergone so-called top surgery to remove some or all of their natural breast tissue, they may also apply to men who have begun consuming a cocktail of synthetic hormones and other drugs to help them begin secreting a milk-like substance from their nipples. One such medication often used in the process has even been known to cause an irregular heartbeat in some infants.

Some doctors have heavily criticized these CDC guidelines since the guidelines seem to ignore possible risks to the infant and the long-term effects on both babies and the lactating men. Dr. Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, told the Daily Mail that he finds it "very hard to believe" that the substance produced by male mammary glands closely resembles the breastmilk that pregnant women produce naturally. "It's induced," Fischer said of male lactation. "You can't fool Mother Nature."

"If it's been tested a handful of times, how would we know the long-range effect?" Fischer added. "The short-term is one thing, but the long-term in terms of physical and mental illness ... who knows? It's an emerging field, to put it mildly."

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the conservative Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, also expressed concerns about the long-term risks of male breastfeeding, especially if such men stimulate lactation using "all kinds of off-label hormones." "A lot of people are pushing for off-label use of a drug," she claimed.

Both Orient and Fischer also seemed to criticize those who cave to "political" pressure and thereby normalize male breastfeeding without considering the long-term consequences. "It's become so politicized that you can do all kinds of things for a politically approved purpose," Orient stated. "This is the kind of thing where politics and science are uncomfortably put together," added Fischer.

The CDC did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Mail or the New York Post.

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