New research is providing more evidence for the long-term dangers of conversion therapy.

As UPI reports, a team of researchers led by Brian Mustanski, director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University, found that young adults assigned male at birth who had been exposed to conversion therapy were nearly 2.9 times more likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure than those who had not.

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The report, published this week in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open, was based on an analysis of health data on 703 young adults. All were assigned male at birth, while 23 percent were transgender or gender diverse. Around 10 percent reported having endured some form of “conversion therapy,” a widely discredited practice that proponents say can change a person’s sexual orientation.

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Researchers noted that such interventions are “rooted in discredited beliefs that sexual and gender minority identities, behaviors, and/or attractions are immoral, abnormal, and/or pathological,” and “have been unequivocally denounced by leading medical, psychological, and human rights organizations based on their harmful psychological impacts.”

Indeed, as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) notes, major medical organizations like the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, American Medical Association (AMA), American Psychiatric Association,  American Psychological Association (APA), and the American School Health Association all oppose conversion therapy.

Researchers noted that while conversion therapy has been shown to lead to “detrimental psychological effects” including “heightened risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidality,” theirs is likely the first study to show evidence that the practice may also lead to a “risk of adverse cardiovascular health outcomes.”

In addition to their blood pressure findings, which were particularly alarming as the average age of participants was around 27, Mustanski and his team also found that the blood of those who had experienced conversion therapy showed more markers for inflammation, another risk factor for cardiovascular health.

They concluded that their findings “support bans on [conversion therapy] and enforcement of existing bans to eventually eliminate the adverse health consequences associated with these practices.”

“Although awareness of the harm caused by [conversion therapy] is increasing, legal bans remain inconsistent across the U.S.,” researchers wrote. “Policymakers should consider these results when shaping laws to protect sexual and gender minority individuals from further harm.”

The study comes at a time when Republican lawmakers, emboldened by the president’s victory in the 2024 election, have moved to weaken or strike down altogether bans on conversion therapy under the guise of protecting religious freedom. So far this year, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Christian counselors seeking to overturn bans in Kansas City and Jackson County. In March, Kentucky Republicans passed a veto-proof state measure overturning Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s 2024 executive order blocking the use of tax dollars to pay for “conversion therapy.”  

That same month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Chiles v. Salazar, a case challenging state bans. The conservative-leaning court’s decision could potentially overturn bans and restrictions on “conversion therapy” for minors currently in place in 28 states.

And earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a rushed report on gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors, which recommended behavioral therapy to treat gender dysphoria. Critics, including GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, say the report effectively advocates for conversion therapy for transgender young people.  

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