Times: Chemist sells hormones for kids online

If I recall correctly, that is exactly what Action for Trans health demanded. They were consulted by Maria Miller in the transgender equality report. They wanted all hormones and medication to be available over the counter.

Oh yes, in their completely bonkers, self-contradictory manifesto. I'd forgotten about that.

Gender GP is not the answer. As well as problems with gender gp itself, there have been problems at other prescribing outlets where prescribing decisions were not always appropriate, based on thorough medical history and in line with evidence based; risk assessed national guidance and best practice.

These do not always seem important if you feel you are getting what you want, but when things go wrong, you realise that they were.

I have seen women with menopause issues driven to using this sort of service, but when they have paid out for proper consultations, they have appreciated the quality of service.

Sia, this shows that they were already suspended before the tragic death of this teen that you may have been thinking about.

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/transgender-treatment-nhs-webberley-jayden-16504026

The Webberleys - a GP and a gastroenterologist - have their licence to practise in the UK currently suspended by the GMC though they are not technically "struck off". Hence the move to Spain. They have been reported multiple times by concerned doctors among others, so the GMC investigations are ongoing.

Due to GenderGP being registered in Hong Kong, my understanding is that the CQC are unable to inspect.

These are loopholes in UK law which GenderGP are exploiting.

Three teens that I know have accessed Cross sex hormone medication after a single Skype call lasting less than an hour to GenderGP.

They received no counselling or challenge to their self diagnosis despite them having complex histories including eating disorders, ASD, school refusal, suicide attempts, CSA, trauma etc.

This is not 'crowing', this is relief.

who is doing the physical monitoring of the effects on you physically and making sure you don't encounter other health issues as a result of them? Is there someone performing physical checkups on the children being prescribed hormones or in fact, the adults?

Indeed. I would like to see an answer to that.

OMG!

*not right medically speaking
I wish you could edit posts

All medical practice (NHS or private) needs to be ethically above board, and if people taking action to investigate concerns in that regard are "targeting" them, then you're arguing for the total deregulation of medicine.

If I recall correctly, that is exactly what Action for Trans health demanded. They were consulted by Maria Miller in the transgender equality report. They wanted all hormones and medication to be available over the counter.

(The fact that they also wanted to be able to operate on one another, didn't appear to effect their credibility when being consulted over the government report.)

Late transitioning adults who want hormones need to understand that the regulations are there to protect not just them, but minors as well.

It seems to me and known side effects

fast typing., sore fingers - sorry.

I'm sorry you are struggling Alex and I hope you find a solution which operates in a more eithical manner. I was wondering, if GGP prescribe from online to you and " hundreds, prob thousands of people " and these hormones have an effect on your physical health, who is doing the physical monitoring of the effects on you physically and making sure you don't encounter other health issues as a result of them? Is there someone performing physical checkups on the children being prescribed hormones or in fact, the adults?

It seems to be prescribing very strong medication with know side effects without maintaining physical checkups is unethical and probably dangerous. I'm concerned you and others aren't being looked after properly and this is a real failing. I understand the urge to use online prescriptions in the face of waiting times but surely this kind of medication requires some monitoring? Do you have someone who does this for you? Do the children using GGP?

I do feel for those caught in some kind of limbo here, it must be scary and frustrating, and perhaps some form of contingency should have been made, however, it strikes me that what GGP is doing is right medically speaking and could lead to people developing other life threatening conditions. That said, I'm no medic but just giving another perspective.

Anger and resentment are appropriate emotions for those trans people directly affected, and I feel sorry for them , but that anger and resentment should be directed at GenderGP whose prescribing business has been built on a house of cards with a poor evidence base, causing irreversible harm to patients, and it was always going to fall apart at some point. It shouldn’t be directed at people who are rightly pleased that this poor quality damaging practice can no longer continue to cause harm, particularly to children.

I don't think that last statement is factually correct, Sia, so I'd suggest you get MNHQ to edit the post to take it out, or risk having it taken down.

HW's licence to practice was suspended, but I don't think she's been tecnhically struck off, and I haven't heard anything suggesting a cause like that.

I say that as someone who thinks she has been doing the most awful things, and should quite rightly be held to account for that, and I am totally in favour of blocking off her route to issuing dodgy prescriptions online.

It’s not kind or responsible to let desperate people buy ineffective or dangerous snake oil. It’s exploitative and cynical.

That’s why we have statutory health care regulation, with its legal foundations debated democratically in Parliament.

I'm glad action has been taken against Gender GP. It should be working within the regulations, if it were, this wouldn't be happening. Trying to circumvent the rules to put children on an irreversible medical pathway, unnecessarily, is abhorrent and I hope they spend a long time in prison.

If there is no regulation then how can we protect people from making potentially devastating decisions?

When dad was diagnosed with a terminal illness the number of ‘cures’ my brother found on the interned was quite amazing. All ‘genuine’ and ‘proven’ apparently - just awaiting paperwork. There is still no cure...

Teenagers are considered able to consent to medical treatments and operations all the time. If you would rather have it done within NHS, with that safeguarding, great. But pushing folks out of nhs by eg targeting tavistock will obviously end up with desperate people seeking healthcare from private providers.

I stopped being sympathetic at this point.

All medical practice (NHS or private) needs to be ethically above board, and if people taking action to investigate concerns in that regard are "targeting" them, then you're arguing for the total deregulation of medicine.

It's been stopped because the regulator stepped in and concerns were also raised by insurers.

There is an article in this tweet that gives the regulator position. mobile.twitter.com/ICPmagazine/status/1313884716689494016

The regulator, however, urged pharmacies to “manage the extra risks” that may arise when working with a prescriber based outside the UK and ensure “the prescriber is working within national prescribing guidelines for the UK.”

“People are at risk of serious harm if they receivemedicinesor treatmentthat arenot clinically appropriate forthem,” said GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin.

“(The) investigation by the BBC andThe Timesraises serious concerns. Wearelooking into the issues raised as a matter of urgency and will take any actions necessary to safeguard patients and the public. Pharmacy owners and pharmacy professionals have a responsibility to safeguard children and vulnerable people.

“We expect pharmacy owners to make sure they do not work with online providers who are trying to circumvent the regulatory oversight put in place within the UK to ensure patient safety throughout the healthcare system.

‎“Pharmacy owners should also make sure that theonline prescribing service, or a prescriber, thattheychoose to work with is aware that some categories of medicines are not suitable to be supplied online unless further safeguards have been put in place to make sure that they are clinically appropriate.

“This includes medicines that require ongoing monitoring and management.”

Reddit transgender communities are talking about being cut off from thier prescriptions because of this article.

www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/j6qwk9/just_received_this_email_from_gendergp/

This isn't good for anybody. Yes, there should have been a conversation had and yes they refused to talk about it. But cold turkey cut off for adults with gender dysphoria seems inhumane to me.

Hi Alex, good to hear your perspective. I'm sympathetic to your situation as I (like many other women) am forced to buy thyroid hormones online as the NHS will only provide T4 (which makes me sick) and I need T3+T4 to feel like a normal person. It's expensive and causes a lot of trouble as online pharmacy disappear and reappear and you worry about how you are going to keep going without your life saving medication.

However, I am an adult. I would never advocate for children to be buying hormones online. If GenderGP were only prescribing to adults, it wouldn't be a problem but prescribing to kids is really wrong.

Hi Alex thanks for coming on here to give your perspective and I'm another who feels genuinely sad for people like you that have been impacted.

You say how your experience as a child/teenager has shaped your view and many of us on here have also been shaped by our childhood experiences. We know that had we been offered the option of changing gender as children, we would have jumped at it. That thought scares the hell out of us and is the reason we don't want that path available for our children or grandchildren. We are honestly not evil, we just passionately believe in protecting children.

Good luck with finding an alternative provider.

The problem is that Keira Bell was also a teenager - one who, as it turned out, was not trans. And the medical practitioners were unable to tell the difference. Which is why "first do no harm" has to be the guiding principle.

Good luck with your search for an alternative (and hopefully more reputable) source of medical help.

I was a teenager once, and if I'd had access to treatment then it would have been much more effective than anything I can do now.

Teenagers are considered able to consent to medical treatments and operations all the time. If you would rather have it done within NHS, with that safeguarding, great. But pushing folks out of nhs by eg targeting tavistock will obviously end up with desperate people seeking healthcare from private providers.

'I am genuinely sorry that consenting adults like you have got caught in the cross-fire of this battle" Thank you for acknowledging that. In the comments above all i saw were folks crowing. There really are thousands of us who are now deeply worried about accessing our medications :(

Alex I am genuinely sorry that consenting adults like you have got caught in the cross-fire of this battle.

But you are an adult. It may be difficult for you, but there are alternative avenues, which you, having adult levels of cognition and mental capacity, can explore. I sincerely hope you will be able to find someone in this country who can help you - and in this instance, organisations like Stonewall should be able to give you support and guidance in this (that is if they still do practical, meaningful real-world support for LGBT people rather than just twitter posturing).

However, the reason most of us on this board are so opposed to GenderGP is because they prescribe these medicines to children, who do not yet have the intellectual capacity or life experience to enable them to give any sort of consent, much less informed consent, to life-altering, irreversible medical treatments.

If GenderGP had confined their attention to adults with full mental capacity, I might have suspected them of being rapacious, money grabbing bastards, but I wouldn't have tried to stop them doing that.

(excuse typos. i not long finished a 12 hour shift at work and have been trying to find out what to do about my meds, and was even more upset after reading this thread)