Now, children will be seen not just by experts in gender dysphoria, but also “experts in pediatric medicine, autism, neurodisability and mental health” because “there is a higher prevalence of other complex presentations in children and young people who have gender dysphoria.”
Excellent post but I will give one clarification - it is NHS England which is doing this. NHS Scotland remains in the thrall of Gender Ideology. Health is a devolved matter and each country in the Union -- England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland develop their own policy. England has the largest population. Cass reported to NHS England.
The Telegraph revealed five days ago a leaked recording from the Sandyford, Scotland's gender clinic. It is fairly horrifying.
'A consultant clinical psychologist at Sandyford openly admitted at an online NHS event in June that there were huge gaps in evidence around trans healthcare and claimed that work was ongoing to find “a robust evidence base for the treatment that we offer”....She said that the vast majority of her patients rejected steps which could have allowed them to have children in future before undergoing treatments that could render them infertile, as they were “desperate” to quickly access hormones.
The consultant insisted that it was not the role of gender identity clinics to conduct detailed scrutiny of a patient’s mental health and that life-altering treatments were ethical, as even if a patient later changed their mind, information they provided had been “correct at the time of writing”. "
You are welcome. It is easy to get confused if you don't live here. Campaigners in Scotland are hoping to get the Scottish government and others to pay attention to the Cass Report, but with mixed success.
The Telegraph has continued its expose of the Sandyford today including: "Children as young as nine were prescribed puberty blockers at a Scottish gender identity clinic branded "Sturgeon's Tavistock," a report has revealed.
A report into Scotland's national gender identity service by NHS clinicians found 79 children aged between nine and 18 were referred for puberty-suppressing drugs while being treated at the Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow.
The report also showed a “disproportionately” high number of children undergoing gender treatment who were referred to endocrinologists at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow from 2011 to 2019 had autism.
Nearly 40 per cent of children referred suffered from mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression.
In the past 12 months, Sandyford clinic has seen more than 600 under-18s. "
Dr Andreas Kyriakou, a former paediatric endocrinologist at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow and lead author of the appraisal wrote: "Mental health problems remain one of the major coexisting concerns in transgender young people, as more than one-third of those attending our clinic have a diagnosis of a mental health disorder.
"Our study confirms the disproportionate number of young people with autistic spectrum traits, much higher than expected in the general population." "
I don't know if you can get hold of the report from the European Journal of Paediatrics which was published in April 2021 but it might be worth taking a look.
They are far smaller. NI has problems and I think Wales mostly feeds into the Tavistock which is closing. The big campaign was in England and Transgender Trend is v happy.
Thank you for writing this. Our professional institutions (most notably, the American Psychological Association) must re-align themselves with the pursuit of truth instead of activism. I fear that until that happens, the incentives will never point us in the right direction.
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice"
Would be nice if it bent a bit quicker in the US though. I know some children who are next in line for blockers and surgery thanks to incurious parents blinded by perceived righteousness. Very sad.
I have always been skeptical of the medical interventions, without being really sure it necessary. It’s interesting that even social transitioning may cause harm. More honest, science based research is definitely needed.
Leaving matters to doctors got us gain of function research, a global pandemic, forced mRNA mass injections, a wave of pediatric myocarditis, and massive job losses among people who believe in health autonomy. So, no, I prefer to let the people decide what happens to those who mutilate children
The professional organizations in the U.S. need to take the lead. Until then, states will enact outright bans (or become transgender “sanctuaries”), from a mixture of ethical and political motives, mostly the latter. In the absence of courage and responsibility shown by the medical establishment, I’d vote for banning “transition” surgeries prior to age 18 (if I didn’t live in California).
I take a moment to rejoice when news like this comes out. The road is long and rough, but it is helpful to see some sense emerging from the fog. Thank you for the update Lisa.
Good article on what is to me, an issue and means to build support for a select group of questionable ethics-oriented people only interested in money and furthering their own self-interest.
Nonprofits like Mermaids, a charity that supports trans kids and has garnered outsized political and educational influence—and is now under investigation for supplying breast binders to girls—can no longer be so directly involved. What the Hell, why not bind the feet like they did in China. That was once considered desirable and beautiful. Now it's mutilating kids by binding, cutting off parts, or stuffing them with drugs. Where do these absolutely insane people come from and why are they not in jail?
The do-good Liberals who I truly think hate their own lives and want to social transition in prepubertal children are truly demented and should be investigated (but DOJ is now corrupted) and shunned by society. Plus, it makes millions with no repercussions and the people doing it simply don't really care about the long-term impacts. Why not do frontal La-Badames? Wasn't that once considered good and trendy?
Again, give kids time to figure this out. Time is a great means of allowing someone to form meaningful decisions versus trendy or outside influenced decisions. We want to throw so many so-called helpful organizations at kids when they are young; has anyone thought it might only add to the self-confusion and influence on the person in a way that may not be best for them?
Anyone ever wonder why so many psychological experts seem to be a little off or have issues from their own past? So, I decided to help others. Ah, no thanks! Not all and not trying to say all are that way, but how do you differentiate that? I just don't trust so called experts. Everyone needs to get smart on anything impacting them or their family and especially their children. If COVID has taught people anything, it should be the Government is self-interested and willing to lie.
I am neither a doctor nor a scientist. But I am a believer in science and its cousin data. I am curious if gender dysphoria is as present in nations and parts of the world that do not speak English and if not why not
Excellent article. The inclusion of the risk of extremes and profit driven motivation in the US worthy of greater awareness and discussion. Medical professionals , rather than activists, need to find their voice.
I have never before had any real interest in the socialized health care systems Europeans have. They are not ideal, that is for sure. But this gender issue has changed my mind about that, at least to the extent of making it clear that our medical professionals have been profoundly corrupted by the profits to be made from these "therapies." It's not that many of them do not also buy into the ideology sincerely. But ideologies usually justify the self-interests of those who hold them. This can entrench them, and I believe it is why here the pushback is unfortunately going to have to be more blunt and politically abrasive.
The fuss over LGBTQ is unwarranted. First, LGB are sexual orientations; I'm a B, Kinsey scale one or two, never acted on it. T has nothing to do with sexual orientation; it's gender dysphoria. The only T I ever consciously knew went from a man having sex with women to a woman having sex with women.
EU data show us that about 0.3% of people over 20 are transgender; US data show 0.5%. So, since populations are similar, it's about 0.4% globally, or less than a quarter of the number of flat-earth enthusiasts. There is no sound scientific data to support clusters. After med school I practiced psychiatry for a short time. Only encountered a few transgendered people. I told them that I couldn't do anything more for them than counsel them about coping mechanisms. We knew too little about puberty blockers; we know more today, and that reinforces my refusal.
It's been more than thirty years since I last practiced psychiatry or any other form of medicine. I try to keep up with psychiatry through my NEJM subscription and reading NIH articles. Nothing has changed in the science. We should join hands and walk with these people through the pathways of life without taking advantage of them for political purposes. Their lives are tough enough already.
If being trans is so widespread and innate, why is medical and/or surgical intervention deemed necessary and life saving? If anything, western society had progressed to be less gender binary, when gender affirmative care was introduced as a standard of care, than it had been in thousands of years.
Excellent post but I will give one clarification - it is NHS England which is doing this. NHS Scotland remains in the thrall of Gender Ideology. Health is a devolved matter and each country in the Union -- England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland develop their own policy. England has the largest population. Cass reported to NHS England.
The Telegraph revealed five days ago a leaked recording from the Sandyford, Scotland's gender clinic. It is fairly horrifying.
'A consultant clinical psychologist at Sandyford openly admitted at an online NHS event in June that there were huge gaps in evidence around trans healthcare and claimed that work was ongoing to find “a robust evidence base for the treatment that we offer”....She said that the vast majority of her patients rejected steps which could have allowed them to have children in future before undergoing treatments that could render them infertile, as they were “desperate” to quickly access hormones.
The consultant insisted that it was not the role of gender identity clinics to conduct detailed scrutiny of a patient’s mental health and that life-altering treatments were ethical, as even if a patient later changed their mind, information they provided had been “correct at the time of writing”. "
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/26/sturgeons-tavistock-clinic-offers-trans-children-surgery-not/
Allow those words to sink in. No detailed scrutiny of mental health and if a patient changed their mind, it was not the clinic's fault.
Thanks for the clarification! Will update.
You are welcome. It is easy to get confused if you don't live here. Campaigners in Scotland are hoping to get the Scottish government and others to pay attention to the Cass Report, but with mixed success.
The Telegraph has continued its expose of the Sandyford today including: "Children as young as nine were prescribed puberty blockers at a Scottish gender identity clinic branded "Sturgeon's Tavistock," a report has revealed.
A report into Scotland's national gender identity service by NHS clinicians found 79 children aged between nine and 18 were referred for puberty-suppressing drugs while being treated at the Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow.
The report also showed a “disproportionately” high number of children undergoing gender treatment who were referred to endocrinologists at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow from 2011 to 2019 had autism.
Nearly 40 per cent of children referred suffered from mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression.
In the past 12 months, Sandyford clinic has seen more than 600 under-18s. "
Dr Andreas Kyriakou, a former paediatric endocrinologist at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow and lead author of the appraisal wrote: "Mental health problems remain one of the major coexisting concerns in transgender young people, as more than one-third of those attending our clinic have a diagnosis of a mental health disorder.
"Our study confirms the disproportionate number of young people with autistic spectrum traits, much higher than expected in the general population." "
I don't know if you can get hold of the report from the European Journal of Paediatrics which was published in April 2021 but it might be worth taking a look.
This is the article from the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/31/children-young-nine-prescribed-puberty-blockers-nicola-sturgeon/
Do we know what Wales and N Ireland are doing?
They are far smaller. NI has problems and I think Wales mostly feeds into the Tavistock which is closing. The big campaign was in England and Transgender Trend is v happy.
Thank you for writing this. Our professional institutions (most notably, the American Psychological Association) must re-align themselves with the pursuit of truth instead of activism. I fear that until that happens, the incentives will never point us in the right direction.
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice"
Would be nice if it bent a bit quicker in the US though. I know some children who are next in line for blockers and surgery thanks to incurious parents blinded by perceived righteousness. Very sad.
I have always been skeptical of the medical interventions, without being really sure it necessary. It’s interesting that even social transitioning may cause harm. More honest, science based research is definitely needed.
Leaving matters to doctors got us gain of function research, a global pandemic, forced mRNA mass injections, a wave of pediatric myocarditis, and massive job losses among people who believe in health autonomy. So, no, I prefer to let the people decide what happens to those who mutilate children
The professional organizations in the U.S. need to take the lead. Until then, states will enact outright bans (or become transgender “sanctuaries”), from a mixture of ethical and political motives, mostly the latter. In the absence of courage and responsibility shown by the medical establishment, I’d vote for banning “transition” surgeries prior to age 18 (if I didn’t live in California).
I take a moment to rejoice when news like this comes out. The road is long and rough, but it is helpful to see some sense emerging from the fog. Thank you for the update Lisa.
Good article on what is to me, an issue and means to build support for a select group of questionable ethics-oriented people only interested in money and furthering their own self-interest.
Nonprofits like Mermaids, a charity that supports trans kids and has garnered outsized political and educational influence—and is now under investigation for supplying breast binders to girls—can no longer be so directly involved. What the Hell, why not bind the feet like they did in China. That was once considered desirable and beautiful. Now it's mutilating kids by binding, cutting off parts, or stuffing them with drugs. Where do these absolutely insane people come from and why are they not in jail?
The do-good Liberals who I truly think hate their own lives and want to social transition in prepubertal children are truly demented and should be investigated (but DOJ is now corrupted) and shunned by society. Plus, it makes millions with no repercussions and the people doing it simply don't really care about the long-term impacts. Why not do frontal La-Badames? Wasn't that once considered good and trendy?
Again, give kids time to figure this out. Time is a great means of allowing someone to form meaningful decisions versus trendy or outside influenced decisions. We want to throw so many so-called helpful organizations at kids when they are young; has anyone thought it might only add to the self-confusion and influence on the person in a way that may not be best for them?
Anyone ever wonder why so many psychological experts seem to be a little off or have issues from their own past? So, I decided to help others. Ah, no thanks! Not all and not trying to say all are that way, but how do you differentiate that? I just don't trust so called experts. Everyone needs to get smart on anything impacting them or their family and especially their children. If COVID has taught people anything, it should be the Government is self-interested and willing to lie.
I am neither a doctor nor a scientist. But I am a believer in science and its cousin data. I am curious if gender dysphoria is as present in nations and parts of the world that do not speak English and if not why not
They just aren’t sufficiently enlightened yet. We’ll bring them out of their dark ages soon. Mission civilisatrice, and all that.
Excellent article. The inclusion of the risk of extremes and profit driven motivation in the US worthy of greater awareness and discussion. Medical professionals , rather than activists, need to find their voice.
I have never before had any real interest in the socialized health care systems Europeans have. They are not ideal, that is for sure. But this gender issue has changed my mind about that, at least to the extent of making it clear that our medical professionals have been profoundly corrupted by the profits to be made from these "therapies." It's not that many of them do not also buy into the ideology sincerely. But ideologies usually justify the self-interests of those who hold them. This can entrench them, and I believe it is why here the pushback is unfortunately going to have to be more blunt and politically abrasive.
The fuss over LGBTQ is unwarranted. First, LGB are sexual orientations; I'm a B, Kinsey scale one or two, never acted on it. T has nothing to do with sexual orientation; it's gender dysphoria. The only T I ever consciously knew went from a man having sex with women to a woman having sex with women.
EU data show us that about 0.3% of people over 20 are transgender; US data show 0.5%. So, since populations are similar, it's about 0.4% globally, or less than a quarter of the number of flat-earth enthusiasts. There is no sound scientific data to support clusters. After med school I practiced psychiatry for a short time. Only encountered a few transgendered people. I told them that I couldn't do anything more for them than counsel them about coping mechanisms. We knew too little about puberty blockers; we know more today, and that reinforces my refusal.
It's been more than thirty years since I last practiced psychiatry or any other form of medicine. I try to keep up with psychiatry through my NEJM subscription and reading NIH articles. Nothing has changed in the science. We should join hands and walk with these people through the pathways of life without taking advantage of them for political purposes. Their lives are tough enough already.
Great article. I will share it.
If being trans is so widespread and innate, why is medical and/or surgical intervention deemed necessary and life saving? If anything, western society had progressed to be less gender binary, when gender affirmative care was introduced as a standard of care, than it had been in thousands of years.