A Scarlet Letter Day for an August Society

The Endocrine Society is the oldest and largest scientific and medical organization dedicated to the study of hormones and hormonal disorders on the planet. In 1916, physicians interested in "internal secretions" formed the society, originally called the Association for the Study of Internal Secretions. In 1952 the name was changed to the Endocrine Society. For more than a century, the Society has pursued cutting-edge science and contributed to major medical advances. Ten of its members have been Nobel Laureates, including Rosalyn Yalow, Roger Guillemin, and Robert Levkowitz. The society's contribution to science and medicine has been extraordinary. It is indeed a worldwide organization with members from every corner of the world.

I have been a highly inauspicious member of the Society for almost 40 years, and have attended its annual meetings for most of those years. The trends in the organization have recently veered strongly off course, as the organization has become increasingly woke and focused on areas beyond the traditional medical scientific borders, into such things as environment-disrupting chemicals and climate change, not to mention investigations into uses for embryonic stem cells and research using fetal tissues.

One of the major focuses of the Endocrine Society in recent years has been transgender medicine, in which it is the leading scientific and medical body. In that area it has gone completely off the deep end. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has authored guidelines and pushed treatment, including for adolescents. Despite a paucity of anything that might be considered actual scientific data, the Society has promulgated guidelines for the use of puberty-blocking hormones, cross sex hormone treatment of minors, and "gender affirming" surgery for adolescents.

On December 9, 2025, the State of Florida filed suit against the Endocrine Society, along with WPATH and the American Academy of Pediatrics, for consumer fraud and racketeering.

The suit was filed in the 19th Judicial Circuit Court in St. Lucie County, Florida, by Attorney General James Uthmeir.

The suit as filed is 75 pages long and includes a history of the study and treatment of transgender patients from the early 20th century. The papers filed go into great detail about the process of developing guidelines by the named organizations that completely discarded any rigorous scientific approach. Rather, guidelines were developed to allow physicians to treat patients, including surgically, in the absence of evidence, and to promote transgender treatment coverage by insurance and avoid any label that might designate the treatment as experimental, so reimbursement could be obtained. The marshaled evidence against the Society is a tour de force, in my view, and highly credible. The suit alleges that these organizations violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA) and the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO). Fines in the millions of dollars are sought.

The Endocrine Society has had sessions on transgender health and treatment at its annual meetings for many years. In 2017, Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health in HHS (and later to become an admiral in the Public Health Service in the Biden administration), addressed the group. I attended that session. The presentation had no scientific content at all. It was basically a promotional presentation. When Dr. Levine was nominated to her position at HHS, the Endocrine Society produced a glowing letter in support of her nomination to the Senate (the vote to approve was 52-48). Prior to her position at HHS she had been the director of public health for Pennsylvania, where she attempted to surpass Andrew Cuomo in sending elderly COVID patients to nursing homes. At HHS she strong-armed WPATH to include recommendations for adolescent hormone treatment and surgery despite lack of evidence of benefit. Some of this history is referenced in the suit.

With the downward trend in medical ethics and scientific rigor, and the orientation of the Endocrine Society toward political issues, I have, for a number of years, considered dropping my membership in the organization, although it continues to promote excellence in many areas of science and medicine. With credible allegations of consumer fraud and racketeering (with which charges I fully agree, and my understanding of the issue concords precisely with that of the Florida AG), I would be remiss if I did not end my membership.

Recently I received an email from the Society asking for suggestions on topics and speakers for its upcoming annual meeting in 2026. I sent a suggestion that the Endocrine Society hold a special scientific session with Miriam Grossman, author of the remarkable book Lost in Trans Nation, as the speaker. That book itself is a powerful description and indictment of the transgender social contagion that has been forced on the nation. I received no response to my suggestion.

Other states may choose to follow Florida's lead. They should. The fallout from this suit, and, hopefully, others that may follow, might be akin to the fallout from Andrew Weissman's indictment (that was criminal, this suit is civil) of Arthur Andersen. Of course, if the Endocrine Society were to disappear, it would reappear under another name in short order.