Boy Given Estrogen In LA Juvenile Facility Grew Breasts: Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES, CA — A lawsuit alleges that a 16-year-old-boy in custody in Los Angeles' Eastlake Juvenile Hall last year was prescribed estrogen without his or his parents' knowledge — and that the doses kept coming until the teen began to develop "female breast tissue."

The lawsuit, which was filed late last month in Los Angeles County, does not name the minor teen. It does names as defendants the county of Los Angeles and two medical officials at the juvenile facility who, the suit alleges, were involved in prescribing the daily doses of the sex hormone.

The teen was first detained June 23, 2019; two days later, the suit states, the facility's medical staff diagnosed him with oppositional defiant disorder, which is associated with "elevated testosterone and delinquency in male youths."

Indeed, blood and urine tests on the teen showed "slightly elevated levels of testosterone," the lawsuit notes — But it was the treatment prescribed, which the lawsuit contends violated the teen's rights to bodily autonomy and informed consent, that is now at the center of the legal case.

Two days after his admission to the facility and diagnosis, the teen was prescribed 30 doses of estrogen, a hormone that regulates reproduction and is regularly prescribed to treat symptoms of menopause.

But according to the suit, neither the teen or his parents were informed of his diagnosis or estrogen treatment.

Instead, when the teen asked a nurse about the medications, he was told "incorrectly, falsely, and misleadingly... that it was for treating a small 'nodule' on his left breast and/or chest, in order to convince him to take the estrogen," the suit alleges.

The teen initially refused to take the medication, the suit states, which claims that he was subsequently told he could not refuse a treatment prescribed by a doctor.

Being in custody, "he felt coerced," the suit explains, as he feared refusing the pills could lead to him being moved to a harsher level of punishment, which could even include confinement in a correctional facility beyond his 18th birthday.

"Almost immediately" after taking the first doses, the suit continues, the teen developed gynecomastia, a condition in boys and men in which the breast tissue is enlarged due to an imbalance of estrogen and testosterone.

The changes in his body included soreness and pain, but over the next days he also endured "negative physical, emotional, cognitive, and psychological effects," the suit claims.

After two weeks and at least thirteen doses of estrogen, the teen refused to continue the treatment. The suit claims that it was only at this point that his parents were informed of their son's condition and diagnoses for oppositional defiance disorder.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a diagnosis for oppositional defiant disorder follows "frequent and persistent pattern of anger, irritability, arguing, defiance or vindictiveness" toward parents and "often occurs along with other behavioral or mental health problems." The clinic states, "Medications alone generally aren't used for ODD unless your child also has another mental health disorder."

While the lawsuit at one point alleges that the use of estrogen represents an "experimental treatment" conducted on juvenile detainees in the downtown facility, the suit also contends that the defendants have addressed their actions in a different way, claiming that they had "accidentally" prescribed the hormone to the teen.

In an interview with the Los Angles Times, the boy's father appeared to address that latter claim, as he told the newspaper that he'd personally called Dr. David Oh — the medical director Juvenile Court Health Services — in order to confront him over his son's condition.

According to the father, Oh described the estrogen treatment as "a mistake."