Children distressed over their identity can be cured with counseling, not puberty blockers and surgeries that cause “irreversible damage,” the Mountain Brook doctor nominated by President Donald Trump for assistant secretary of health testified Wednesday.

Dr. Brian Christine, a urologic surgeon at Urology Centers of Alabama’s Homewood location and Trump donor nominated by the president in March, conceded that gender dysphoria is a “real condition” but said the cure is “counseling, compassion and care.”

Christine was responding to a question by Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., about how he will “bring sanity back” to the assistant health secretary role.

“Our minors, who have gender dysphoria – which is a real condition – these individuals suffer. They deserve compassion, they deserve love. The best treatment for these individuals, in my opinion and according to science, is that they be treated with compassion and counseling … and they be treated with support and care and love,” Christine told a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions [HELP] Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination.

“We know that if you treat minors with gender dysphoria in that way, then the vast majority of them, by the time they reach their late teens, will no longer suffer from gender dysphoria. They’re happy in their own skin,” Christine said.

The Mountain Brook urologist who donated $8,500 to Trump’s campaign said he would not advocate for gender-affirming care.

“The way to treat them is not with chemicals and puberty blockers and hormones and surgeries that do irreversible damage,” Christine said.

“The best way to treat them is with counseling, compassion and care. That is what I would recommend to do. And of course, we never want federal funds – I agree with the president and the secretary – we never would want federal funding to go toward any kind of transgender surgeries.”

Christine is expected to be confirmed by the HELP Committee. His nomination will then be sent to the full GOP-led Senate.

When he was nominated, The Wall Street Journal reported Christine’s practice advertised its treatment of transgender patients.

Christine denied treating transgender patients.