What you all said was coming

This isn't about this individual man knew or didn't know what he was doing. It is about the responsibility of doctors to behave ethically and not to carry out harmful, life-altering procedures with no medical benefit.

What @RoyalCorgi said. Also, people really need to look long and hard at the post from @rogdmum I've quoted here. This is a disgrace.

We seem to have moved from a position where a tiny handful of adults were given extensive treatment for what everybody recognised was a mental health problem, and a few of them as an absolute last resort were given hormone and surgical treatments because nothing else worked - to the position now, where far larger numbers of people are asking for medical treatments but are adamant that they don't have a mental health condition, it's just that (uniquely in the human experience) they have somehow ended up with a body that doesn't match their brain and they've decided the body needs to be altered to make it a better fit. And HCPs and administrators and politicians and Uncle Tom Cobley and all are just nodding along and saying 'Yes, OK, there'll be a long waiting list, but in principle, can't see an issue with this'. Really?

I don't have any medical qualifications but I consider myself reasonably intelligent. I find it hard to believe that anyone who has their genitalia removed would not expect to have issues with incontinence and sexual function. It's not really rocket science is it!!

It's a shame and some visible learning, unfortunately taking a life with it, in my view. He said he started the journey, latched on, with zeal.

Its classic avoidance. He should have been supported to explore that. Like the heroin user who gives that up and latches on to alcohol instead. 'Still not good!!!'

The whole issue is turning. But it's a shame it took this man with it. Of course all down to being gay and afraid to come out due to his family's attitudes.

This (the man in the Op, not the fictional Jesus!) could well have been my son, if he had not actually had some useful therapy from GIDS.

That's really good to hear, rise - can you say any more about this? Obviously don't if you'd prefer not to. I'm interested into what the GIDS services are actually like beyond the headlines.

To be fair though, it's not that well kept a secret as I know quite a lot about it and have only learned since JK ROwling put her hat into the ring.
The information is out there, but yes, if you only research one side of it and seek only affirmation then that's what you'll get.
I imagine I could do the same for breast implants, join a pro Facebook group, instagrammers, read glowing testimonials and come to the same optimistic and naive conclusion.
The difference being I'd be funding my own folly, not the NHS.

So disgraceful that he’s suing the NHS. He needs to take a certain amount of responsibility for this. He says he didn’t realise it would be such a big change…what?? Whether they did enough counselling is another matter as he may not have been suitable. I wasn’t there so can’t comment fully. However, to say it’s 100% their fault is ridiculous. If he can give consent to the operation then he could have said no to the treatment at anytime.

Sound like socially he was ashamed of being gay.

Poor man, as much as I hate seeing the NHS being sued it seems something is needed to drastically change the mindset.

This could of easily also been a law suit where he was refused the survey and told he needed to come terms with his sexuality instead.

If someone went to a doctor and claimed they were Jesus, and that doctor, instead of examining why this person thought they were Jesus, just cracked on building a cross for the patient to be crucified on then we would be rightly horrified. Obviously an overblown comparison, but not so far off the mark.

This (the man in the Op, not the fictional Jesus!) could well have been my son, if he had not actually had some useful therapy from GIDS. The affirmation only model is dangerous, and unfortunately the only way things will change is if it starts costing them money in compensation. Losing money is the only thing that will make the NHS stop and look at what the hell they’re doing, sad but true, loss of money is worth more to society than actual human suffering.

He's taken up the services of a 'no win, no fee' lawyer who I imagine has got their eyes on a big payday.

Perhaps. It's surprising how small most medical negligence payouts are (just a few thousand pounds) except in cases where a child has been brain-damaged at birth and needs funding for lifetime care.

I think it's more likely that this firm is hoping the first case, if successful, will open the door to others.

It's being sold to people (including children) as a magic fix

I agree. And this is where the NHS needs to be impartial (say no to the rainbow scheme), be evidence-based (where IS the evidence these surgeries are a good thing?), be free from pressure groups (not bowing down to Mermaids, GIRES, SW, WPATH and others).

The NHS shouldn't be allowed to wriggle off the hook. This issue needs a public inquiry, including the charity sector and what the Charity Commission has done in response to complaints, including RSE in schools, including the likes of TikTok, Twitter, Reddit. The whole lot, and especially charities and online platforms as these will otherwise be allowed to slope off into the shadows.

This is not really the fault of the NHS, it's the fault of mermaids draconian gender support groups who push their agenda rigorously and refuse to acknowledge any alternative viewpoint and push younger and younger kids into extreme solutions to their personality difficulties which are often much more complicated than gender identity

Someone in the nhs signs up for the training though. They pay them.to come in and to vet policies etc. Clearly without any kind of vetting because the social media content alone should raise concerns.

There's a choice made to involve them. Asking stonewall to write your legal.policies is like asking my postie to fix my car.

But the NHS is offering this, they haven't been forced at gunpoint into doing so- yes certainly other factors are equally/more problematic, but they need to take responsibility too

I think that's unfair though. Aside from the fact it seems he was mentally unwell there is so so so much misinformation online about the surgery, and few resources that actually spell out what it's actually like and the risks. It's being sold to people (including children) as a magic fix, and some put a lot of time and effort into supporting this notion in online content.

Funny but true

This is not really the fault of the NHS, it's the fault of mermaids draconian gender support groups who push their agenda rigorously and refuse to acknowledge any alternative viewpoint and push younger and younger kids into extreme solutions to their personality difficulties which are often much more complicated than gender identity. It doesn't matter how much your brain is wired wrong or how much you want to be the other gender or something in between... if you're looking for people to bend reality and to have plastic surgery to validate you then you're NEVER going to be happy. Treatment should focus on counselling and helping young people realise this IMHO but an extreme few of the transgender movement simply won't allow sensible discussions around this which is why health services are being pushed into such drastic measures and they're literally being emotionally blackmailed with children's lives to do this. This is all of society's problem not just the NHS

I think if you had unnecessary surgery that left you in pain and with absolutely no sex life and no prospect of one, and feeling suicidal you might feel it was appropriate to be compensated.

I disagree, if you have chosen to have that unnecessary surgery and gone through a whole process to get it. While I feel sorry for him, people do need to take some responsibility for their own decisions

He should sue the NHS & I hope he wins a massive pay out.

It might make them stop mutilating these people & clearing the massive backlog of genuinely needed surgeries instead.

No treatment for this should ever be available on the NHS other than counselling.

I don't know if there is an equivalent to the Freedom programme for people caught up in this ideology, but there should be.

The NHS is complicit in the abuse of these people & causes irreparable harm that they could not do to themselves without the assistance of the medical profession.

I have absolutely no sympathy for him.
He got what he wanted at 25 & now he will have to live with the consequences.

He wasn't a 14 year old child swept up in a world of lies who didn't know any better.

Maybe he could go into secondary schools to do talks & show all the kids who identify as something else the reality of what they are saying actually looks like.
Then some small good could come of this.

Like they say... if it saves one child.

I am.sick to death of this kind of insane devotion to the nhs even when the has fucked up massively and changed/ruined lives. What has to happen befire they can be held accountable.

Perhaps they should put the money they pay stonewall into a pot fir if they get sued instead.

Why the hell should anyone feel guilty for suing when there's money fir stonewall training and rewriting policies removing the word woman and to pay staff to sit around on their arses filling out a huge stack of forms recording all the ways in which they shit on every protected characteristic besides gender reassignment.

If the nhs dont care where their money goes why the hell should the patient.

Crack.on. then perhaps they will realise that the get out clause fir any accountability is on the small print of said massive stack of forms and they are on their own.

Exactly what Woo said.

I couldn't get my tubes tied, men can't get a vasectomy,
many many women have to wait risking pregnancy, because they are considered too young to make themselves infertile. They may change their mind.

Women who have terrible periods for decades, but no hysterectomy available because, you know, unnecessary. You're young, you might change your mind, it's not a walk in the park, major surgery, you know.

Make your mind up, which is it?

If I was a doctor and a man came to me and asked me to remove his penis, I'd start by assuming that he was mentally ill. I would not be removing a man's penis unless there was a strong medical reason to do so.

Doctors generally refuse to offer sterilisations to young women, even if they've had children, because they think they might regret it. Why on earth, therefore, are they removing the penis of a healthy young man? The consequences of that are not just that he will never have children but that he will never have a sex life.

This isn't about this individual man knew or didn't know what he was doing. It is about the responsibility of doctors to behave ethically and not to carry out harmful, life-altering procedures with no medical benefit.

And they want us to allow them to do this to children?

This shouldn't have happened in the first place.
The NHS does not routinely offer plastic surgery. There are plenty of women with poor mental health who feel a breast enlargement or nose job would help.
They have to go private. Partly because the NHS doesn't want to be responsible for complications and partly because the NHS can't afford to give cosmetic surgery when it is supposed to be a free at the point of treatment service to keep the population well.
When are routinely refused breast reduction for health reasons. Breast reconstruction after cancer. Surgery like cleft palettes and sdr surgery is often delayed so patients have to absolutely fight for them, and there the results are physical not even just cosmetic.
The NHS just needs to up it's mental health support for trans people and direct them to comepatant private surgeons and loan companies.
It's the obvious solution but they are captured.

I do feel sorry for him but I completely disagree with him suing the NHS for this.

No, let him crack on. The NHS needs to face the cost and hassle of being sued over this since it’s their ridiculous stance in enabling and caving to pressure to “be kind” rather than sticking with science that has made this whole problem so pervasive. If our doctors had stuck with the view that these people have a mental health problem then we wouldn’t be in this mess. We don’t allow anorexic people to remove their stomachs.