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Sara Ibrahim vs. transgender people

Sara Ibrahim is a Canadian researcher and anti-transgender activist. Ibrahim is affiliated with anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM).

Background

Sara Ibrahim attended McMaster University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2022 and continuing on for a doctorate that year (expected 2027).

While attending college, Ibrahim worked at the City of Mississauga and Arc Eyecare. Since 2025, Ibrahim has worked as a research and teaching assistant at McMaster.

2025 statement

In 2025, student activists at McMaster University began a campaign to get Gordon Guyatt to acknowledge that the SEGM-McMaster research partnership “utilized GRADE to lend credibility to pseudoscience that opposes gender affirming care.” In June, members confronted Guyatt and Romina Brignardello-Petersen, who both quickly left without commenting.

According to an interview in the National Post, Guyatt was “holding a workshop at McMaster and the people showed up, took videos of us coming in and confronted us. Then they had to be asked to leave and then subsequently (they) posted things on the internet, as well as writing letters to the university.” Guyatt described these tactics as “rather obnoxious.” Guyatt added “The university, as far as I can tell, is very nervous about its image around this whole thing, and the PR people within the university are very uncomfortable with being put in this position. The general PR stance is, ‘Be quiet. Don’t say anything. Anything you say will get into more trouble. Just be quiet. It’ll blow over.’ That’s the general PR stance. […] I was not as vividly aware as to what an extreme political environment it is.”

In August 2025, after Guyatt’s work had been cited extensively as a pretext to ban gender affirming care for minors, Guyatt stated, “Formerly, I thought my job ended with conducting and reporting high quality research. I now realize I have an additional responsibility to address how my work is used.”

Guyatt and team released a statement:

Members and allies of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities have raised concerns about recent systematic reviews related to gender-affirming care. These concerns center on the funding source, and specifically on the potential for the research to be misused to harm trans youth and to deny gender-affirming care. […]

In contrast to the way findings and presentation of our systematic reviews have been misrepresented and misinterpreted, they in fact show that, like the majority of what we do as physicians, the outcomes of specific aspects of care for transgender patients remain uncertain. The appropriate response to such uncertainty is shared decision-making that fully respects the autonomy of the individuals involved. Therefore, we have prepared the following letter related to our SEGM-sponsored systematic reviews: 

It is profoundly misguided to cast health care based on low-certainty evidence as bad care or as care driven by ideology, and low-certainty evidence as bad science. Many of the interventions we offer are based on low certainty evidence, and enlightened individuals often legitimately and wisely choose such interventions. Thus, forbidding delivery of gender-affirming care and limiting medical management options on the basis of low certainty evidence is a clear violation of the principles of evidence-based shared decision-making and is unconscionable. The appropriate use of our work is in ensuring patients receive needed care and in helping TGD patients and their clinicians in decision making. 

We acknowledge concerns that have been raised.1 Our research agreement with SEGM ended in 2024. When the agreement started in 2021, the organization appeared to us as non-trans, cis-gender researchers to be legitimately evidence-based.  

We will no longer accept funding from SEGM. As recommended by community advocates, we have also personally made a donation to Egale Canada’s legal and justice work, noting their litigation efforts aimed at preventing the denial of medically necessary care for gender-diverse youth. 

Selected publications by Ibrahim

Guyatt, Gordon; Brignardello-Petersen, Romina; Ibrahim, Sara; Roldán-Benitez, Yetiani; Couban, Rachel (August 14, 2025). Systematic reviews related to gender-affirming care. McMaster University https://hei.healthsci.mcmaster.ca/systematic-reviews-related-to-gender-affirming-care/

Miroshnychenko, A., Roldan, Y., Ibrahim, S., Kulatunga-Moruzi, C., Montante, S., Couban, R., Guyatt, G., & Brignardello-Petersen, R. (2025). Puberty blockers for gender dysphoria in youth: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 110(6), 429–436. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2024-327909

Miroshnychenko, A., Roldan, Y. M., Ibrahim, S., Kulatunga-Moruzi, C., Dahlin, K., Montante, S., Couban, R., Guyatt, G., & Brignardello-Petersen, R. (2024). Mastectomy for Individuals with Gender Dysphoria Younger Than 26 Years: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, 155(6), 915–923. https://doi.org/10.1097/prs.0000000000011734

Miroshnychenko, A., Ibrahim, S., Roldan, Y., Kulatunga-Moruzi, C., Montante, S., Couban, R., Guyatt, G., & Brignardello-Petersen, R. (2025). Gender affirming hormone therapy for individuals with gender dysphoria aged <26 years: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 110(6), 437–445. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2024-327921

Resources

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

ResearchGate (researchgate.net)