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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

‘NHS trans surgery damaged my body for ever — it’s not safe’

155 replies

Igneococcus · 04/06/2023 07:51

In the Sunday Times today about Richie Herron's and another unnamed patient's lawsuit.

"At the seven NHS adult gender clinics in England and Wales, surgery and cross-sex hormones are offered after the age of 18. Patients have at least two assessment appointments with a specialist medical practitioner before hormone treatment is recommended, and those who are considering surgical treatment have two further meetings with separate clinical professionals before they are referred."

I had more appointments (over a period of 18 months) for my pre-cancerous thyroid nodules before I was referred to surgery.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cf857796-01ec-11ee-b730-2607a18701aa?shareToken=37ab04ab9cda65fdbba5187efb95be79

‘NHS trans surgery damaged my body for ever — it’s not safe’

An autistic patient who reversed his transition is suing over treatment given to young people with gender dysphoria

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cf857796-01ec-11ee-b730-2607a18701aa?shareToken=37ab04ab9cda65fdbba5187efb95be79

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orangegato · 04/06/2023 10:26

The NHS shouldn’t be funding this shite to begin with, these people are healthy.

borntobequiet · 04/06/2023 10:21

You sound like a good case for endometrial ablation. Was that offered?

After scans and a hysterescopy the coil was suggested both to limit the bleeding and as the progesterone component of HRT. Other routes might have been taken had it not worked. I’ve had it replaced already - 4 years is advised if primarily used for HRT, which I never intend to stop. Medics seem OK with this.

WarriorN · 04/06/2023 10:20

If they can't get it right for adults, how the fuck is it ok for children?

WarriorN · 04/06/2023 10:19

Neolara
But he wasn't rushed into surgery at all. He had 100 hours of therapy over 5 years. Adults are allowed to make their own choices about what they want to do.

Others who've experienced GIDS, especially those who've been through paediatric GIDS, say the gatekeeping is very low in comparison to peads.

Also - Ritchie was told therapy would stop unless he physically transitioned.

His therapy was 100% affirming. It was him who was holding back on transitioning and wanted to continue therapy to explore the ideas. And support for extreme depression and OCD, These ideas were not explored beyond affirmation.

He was also told post surgery that his immediate feelings of regret were due to the anaesthetic.

WarriorN · 04/06/2023 10:14

Should this surgeon have been allowed to carry on amputating healthy limbs from patients who requested it? After all, it's what the patients wanted and were asking for.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/625680.stm

The medical community quickly stamped down on this after initially getting excited.

The treatment for body dysmorphia is now long term therapy, not cosmetic surgery. As this has been proven to lead to more dissatisfaction and more dysphoria.

WarriorN · 04/06/2023 10:12

Namechange666 · 04/06/2023 09:57

Sorry but to blame the NHS for something that they wanted and they asked for?

If the NHS Hadn't have treated them, would be have been classed as transphobic and anti- LGBT.

This is not the NHS fault at all.

This is an unfortunate consequence of someone who has no changed their mind.

It's awful and it's unfortunate. But ultimately, they chose to do this to themselves!

No they didn't.

A very distressed gay young man with extreme OCD who was later also diagnosed as autistic experienced elements of social sexism and homophobia growing up in the NE of England, which, as a resident, I can say isn't the most progressive of areas.

The internet told him he was trans. He sought therapy and help from the nhs.

The nhs told him he was trans. His mother queried this and was dismissed.

The nhs continued his therapy and didn't explore other ideas - that he had internalised homophobia, autism and OCD + the internet added fuel to the fire.

Eventually they said they'd have to stop the therapy unless he transitioned. The THERAPY was the one thing holding him together.

So he agreed to transition.

I'm holding that as that is not an informed consent decision. That's coercion.

OldCrone · 04/06/2023 10:11

Namechange666 · 04/06/2023 09:57

Sorry but to blame the NHS for something that they wanted and they asked for?

If the NHS Hadn't have treated them, would be have been classed as transphobic and anti- LGBT.

This is not the NHS fault at all.

This is an unfortunate consequence of someone who has no changed their mind.

It's awful and it's unfortunate. But ultimately, they chose to do this to themselves!

So if someone wants one of their limbs removed, and they can find a surgeon willing to do this, it's all their own fault and they're 'doing it to themselves'? Is it your belief that the surgeon and the NHS have no responsibility for procedures that they carry out on the request of the patient?

Should this surgeon have been allowed to carry on amputating healthy limbs from patients who requested it? After all, it's what the patients wanted and were asking for.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/625680.stm

BBC News | SCOTLAND | Surgeon defends amputations

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/625680.stm

HatchetJob · 04/06/2023 10:09

My friend had to fight for sterilisation after 7 children. In case ‘she wanted more’. She has surprise twins and definitely did not want more.

We know someone who had M2F surgery. They had a year of therapy and ‘living as a woman’. It was perfectly obvious to everyone around him that it would be a disaster. It was, he gave up dressing as a woman, wearing his wig, dilating within a year. He was a gay man and was ashamed of it, therapy did not pick that up. Now he is mutilated.

DD has a friend whose brother has decided he is a woman. He is obviously ASD (like 2 other siblings) and is very unhappy. His mother seems scared to question it. Worst of all the name he has picked is basically the same as his sister. Everyone has to go along with it to keep them happy though.

Namechange666 · 04/06/2023 09:58

Now*

BTW, I am also not anti-trans. I do not care if someone wishes to be another gender. That is up to them and no business of mine. But this was their choice. Not the NHS.

Namechange666 · 04/06/2023 09:57

Sorry but to blame the NHS for something that they wanted and they asked for?

If the NHS Hadn't have treated them, would be have been classed as transphobic and anti- LGBT.

This is not the NHS fault at all.

This is an unfortunate consequence of someone who has no changed their mind.

It's awful and it's unfortunate. But ultimately, they chose to do this to themselves!

FannyCann · 04/06/2023 09:55

How ironic @borntobequiet
Glad they sorted your problems and you are happy with the outcome. Though won't you need the coil removing after five years or so? What if the problem comes back then?
You sound like a good case for endometrial ablation. Was that offered?

FannyCann · 04/06/2023 09:52

The very worst complications appear to arise from phalloplasty. I'm sure I read somewhere recently that the NHS has now appointed a surgeon to do this surgery because there's a waiting list. Many of those on the waiting list will be very young and potentially have a poor understanding of what it can lead to.

See the FOI I have linked @OvaHere

soddingspiderseason · 04/06/2023 09:50

Wow. Thank you for sharing. So deeply sad. I hope that the daylight now being shone on this issue will result in long term change.

OvaHere · 04/06/2023 09:49

I don't think young people are able to comprehend just how bad severe and constant urinary issues are, just how much misery they cause and how debilitating. Severe urinary problems make living an ordinary everyday life impossible.

I've been reading about the aftermath of both male and female gender surgeries for a few years and it strikes me that the worst and most common complications are related to this.

It's dismissed too easily as something that's fixable but quite often it's just not. Young people in their 20s and 30s are experiencing something that previously might have only happened in the elderly or a small number of the worst childbirth injuries. From what I've seen and read urinary complications from SRS tend to be by some magnitude worse than either of those scenarios.

The very worst complications appear to arise from phalloplasty. I'm sure I read somewhere recently that the NHS has now appointed a surgeon to do this surgery because there's a waiting list. Many of those on the waiting list will be very young and potentially have a poor understanding of what it can lead to.

Given that there are so many procedures the NHS won't do based on a risk to the patient basis it's just insane to me that this still sits outside of normal guidelines. So many of these people will be coming back again and again to the NHS with complications and revisions, possibly for the rest of their lives due to something the surgeons knowingly caused in the first instance.

In the US due to how their healthcare system works we can cynically point at the amount of profit gender surgeons make if a patient ends up needing multiple surgeries but that's not how the NHS works. In the UK these people potentially will become very expensive patients funded entirely by the NHS and the tax system and over a great number of years.

borntobequiet · 04/06/2023 09:44

NHS England is funding a new service at Chelsea and Westminster hospital which appears to be specifically for females only as it is listed as providing "masculinising genital surgery".

The very hospital at which the doctors at their excellent menopause clinic didn’t want to give me an unnecessary hysterectomy as they felt the risks outweighed the benefits (as mentioned upthread).

forgotmyusername1 · 04/06/2023 09:44

I am very anti suing the NHS

But on this he should go for the jugular

FannyCann · 04/06/2023 09:44

levraibourgeois · 04/06/2023 09:36

It annoys me that this person has had 100+ hours of counselling, yet the waiting list for counselling in my area for mental health issues/anxiety/depression is two years and you get a paltry six sessions.

Yes it's mad. They all talk about the waiting lists and difficulties of accessing support etc. Everyone knows the mental health services generally are in crisis, and it is very difficult to be referred for therapy, with long waiting lists. I can't see how it can be sustainable to offer never ending therapy sessions on the NHS without an end point but certainly achieving an end point shouldn't involve pushing a person into irreversible surgery and crossing them off the list as "job done".

FannyCann · 04/06/2023 09:40

So sorry @loislovesstewie
That sounds very difficult to be dealing with, especially if your son is living at home and you have to be walking on egg shells at all times.

FannyCann · 04/06/2023 09:38

The service is expected to provide for 280 patients a year when it is fully up and running and there is further provision at two private hospitals.

Note that the proposal includes a whole time Tissue Viability Nurse. For those that don't know the work of a TVN is to manage wounds that aren't healing. Chronic Infections. Deep tissue pressure injuries. Necrotising fasciitis. That sort of thing. My hospital has four TVNs on the team, all part time so probably two full time equivalent for a 700 bed hospital.

It's almost as if they are expecting multiple complications.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/nhsserviceeforprovisionnof_mas#incoming-2108473

‘NHS trans surgery damaged my body for ever — it’s not safe’
loislovesstewie · 04/06/2023 09:36

I agree, I think he should have been challenged. I really see no evidence though, and as for ' living as a woman ' that seems to be the bare minimum of changing name. Sorry, but today I am finding it so very depressing. Probably lots of other reasons, but I feel helpless in the face of, what I consider to be cult like ideology.

levraibourgeois · 04/06/2023 09:36

It annoys me that this person has had 100+ hours of counselling, yet the waiting list for counselling in my area for mental health issues/anxiety/depression is two years and you get a paltry six sessions.

FrancescaContini · 04/06/2023 09:31

loislovesstewie · 04/06/2023 09:26

At some point I will take up the issues that I think have been overlooked. I genuinely think that because he is an adult and the therapist has been captured by the ideology then no one is rigorously testing his belief. I don't understand how someone who has a beard, presents completely as male, does nothing stereotypically female, has no interests that would be considered female is affirmed as female. BTW I don't believe that women are a stereotype, but surely if he feels female then he should be doing something 'female'? Not just carrying on as normal and expecting others to accept it? Hard to put into words, but observing, I see nothing that would make me believe anything else.

I would sincerely hope that the main reason for talking to a therapist at that stage would be to have your desire very very rigorously examined and challenged, not affirmed.

FannyCann · 04/06/2023 09:30

The case comes as a large number of 17-year-olds who have been on the 8,000-strong waiting list of the Tavistock clinic in north London, England’s only NHS gender identity clinic for children, are being referred to the adult service.

The large number of teenagers entering the adult service is terrifying. Many if these will be females identifying as male.
NHS England is funding a new service at Chelsea and Westminster hospital which appears to be specifically for females only as it is listed as providing "masculinising genital surgery". Brutal surgery with high complication rates on the NHS.

Shelefttheweb · 04/06/2023 09:28

Neolara · 04/06/2023 08:19

But he wasn't rushed into surgery at all. He had 100 hours of therapy over 5 years. Adults are allowed to make their own choices about what they want to do.

What about if a mum suffering from hyperemesis wanted to be prescribed Thalidomide? Should the NHS do so? What about private doctors?

Should the NHS prescribe mercury for syphallis? That was once considered the best treatment and many people took it in good faith. They are adults after all.

loislovesstewie · 04/06/2023 09:26

At some point I will take up the issues that I think have been overlooked. I genuinely think that because he is an adult and the therapist has been captured by the ideology then no one is rigorously testing his belief. I don't understand how someone who has a beard, presents completely as male, does nothing stereotypically female, has no interests that would be considered female is affirmed as female. BTW I don't believe that women are a stereotype, but surely if he feels female then he should be doing something 'female'? Not just carrying on as normal and expecting others to accept it? Hard to put into words, but observing, I see nothing that would make me believe anything else.

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