Puberty Blocker Trial Paused

Oh this is fascinating, and also matches some of the snippets I’ve been piecing together from bits and bobs on the interwebs plus anecdata from young people around me.

If I had the energy (and was preparing lose a few more marbles) I’d be all over another PhD looking at this.

There are some PhD/ small scale studies, nothing large scale that I am aware of.

There are some interesting hypotheses about the increasing complexity of the social worlds that young people live in (linked to social media and online behaviour) intersecting with increased prevalence of ‘autism’. Here, they are suggesting that clinical significance of symptoms wouldn’t previously have been reached in ‘simpler times’. So autism isn’t increasing, nor are we getting better at spotting it, it’s more a case of functioning within ‘normal’ levels is no longer sufficient.

I raise this because we need to think about the level of challenge our young people have to navigate these days, the different ways (functional and dysfunctional) they navigate this, and the tendency for some clinicians/ adults to readily locate the issues as arising within the young people rather than from the contexts they are operating within.

You can do all of those things.......I do, and have never had a phone; but when you do have a phone your perception of what you can and can't do changes, and you are programmed to start thinking that having everything instantly to hand, without any personal effort, is somehow 'easier'. People lose their ability to be alone and also the necessity of relying on their own resources.

I do have a desk top computer, but no lap-top - so when I go away, or on holiday I am totally screen free...which is so enjoyable. You can really be in the moment and enjoy where you are.

I'm of the opinion, and the stats are slowly coming in to back this up, that it's all our mental health, not just youths this is affecting.

Always being "on" leaves us always wired for threat, we never feel safe and secure because any second a news alert says that there has been a terrorist attack, a text message saying something has happened, an email your hind brain worries about being unresolved.

We were not built for this. It's screwing with us on a very core level.

Unfortunately we have built the world in a way where it is near impossible to not have a smart phone and still function - you can barely use a car park or eat in a restaurant without one.

What you can do is turn off ALL the notifications, remove every single piece of social media and news, and have a dedicated period where you go and look at your texts, your emails or whatever if you need to - and preferably on a desktop computer in a specific room.

Putting your smartphone on a shelf, a hardish to get to one, maybe the kitchen, so you don't just pick it up every time you have a mental itch of discomfort, can do huge things for underlying stress levels as well.

I’m curious - has anyone in the UK properly started looking at the effect of smartphones (etc) on youth mental health? I know Jonathan Haidt in the US is pulling the numbers and data (and digging into the motivations of the tech designers) but is anyone looking at that here?

I didnt appreciate my fertility until I was 30 and found out I couldnt have children.

How can anyone under the age of 18, a child, grasp what they are giving up.

Nick Wallis has the bit between his teeth with this - I think he’s identified his next “post office scandal.” More power to him, frankly - he seems to be a pretty determined, old-school journalist - he is willing to put in the elbow grease.

Have just finished listening to an article on Times radio, where the two interviewees were Professor David Bell and a GP Alice ?Hodkinson? - both against the trial taking place.

It made a change to hear an interviewer give the interviewees room to answer properly; indeed it kicked off with the interviewer, Nick Wallis, asking Prof Bell to give a brief description to the listeners of what the trial was about, the background, how we got to where we are now. When Prof Bell stopped speaking, Wallis sounded totally aghast.

Any Times Radio listeners who came into the subject cold will now be well-briefed and - as Wallis was - totally aghast that this has happened.

As many posters have said the medical issues have been well known for ages so why are they only being used now to question Streeting's Puberty Blockers trial?

My hope is that Wes Streeting totally underestimated the unpopularity of the Puberty Blocker trial with voters and has (working behind the scenes with MHRA) concocted a "we're listening to the science" way to stop the trial that doesn't sound like a U-Turn.

Fingers crossed that his ultimate plan is now to stop the trial.

The cohort of children and young people I work with are unlikely to be fine if their ‘gender distress’ is ignored or dismissed.

Those I work with are vulnerable and mentally unwell. Some believe or hope that their problem can be explained and fixed via ‘gender affirming care’. Most parents who are supportive of this idea come from a place of wishing that this is the solution and that soon their child will be well.

I am already seeing a decline in ‘the gender narrative’ coming through my clinic doors but I am not seeing a decline in numbers of unwell children and young people.

Far more investment and joined up research is needed to better understand why so many young people are struggling.

If/when the ‘gender madness’ abates, there will likely be different presentations and manifestations but the same old problems sitting underneath.

I sincerely hope that hacking the FSU / Lord Young is the very definition of fuck around find out.

It surely wouldn't take much detective work to establish the identities of those behind BB?

Yes - all this twee talk about pausing implies that the children are just too fragile to go through puberty right now, but the goal is castration.

They arrested the gender confused man who hack FSU, he claimed he isn't with Bash Back, but hopefully the investigation into him has led the authorities to others involved in this demented criminal organisation, so more arrests might be made very soon.

I wonder how much support this whole circus would have if they weren’t called the cutesy “puberty blockers” but rather what they got called when used for incarcerated paedophiles: “chemical castration drugs”?

Oh yes, chemical castration is totally the way to go for children. All children should be chemically castrated until they decide what type of personality they want to have.

🙄🙄🙄

Bash Back are making more threats. I wonder how long before they start attacking people as well as buildings, & how long they’ll be allowed to get away with their vandalism.

I think as well, if the parents have any doubt, their job is easier now. Not all parents are going gung-ho for immediate medicalisation of gender questioning children. Those who are may well still find a way, but those parents who are thinking that rushing into potentially harmful treatments might not be the best approach have got more of an argument against it.

Who's going to insure this nonsense?

They can't let taxpayers be on the hook for the enormous repercussions and financial compensation likely to be paid to victims of government sanctioned abuse.

As in:

Exactly!

If that was the standard, then the death of the young man during the development of the Dutch protocol should have been enough to stop this whole horror show in its tracks.

Let’s be clear: if one child experienced these side effects, the trial (under normal circumstances) would be shut down.

Look at things like the withdrawal of DayNurse from pharmacies - that was one the basis of (I believe) one adverse interaction with anaesthetics. And that was an over-the-counter drug in common use, not one with already known detrimental side effects.

And if the researchers weren’t aware that puberty blockers might cause loss of bone density or cognitive impairment (which, let’s face it, they can’t not know by now) - in an ethical trial, if children started experiencing these issues then not only would those children be removed from the trial, but the whole trial would be shut down because of safety concerns!

This post made me wonder:

Up till now, there was this feeling of "group righteousness", of being part of of a "community", all in the system together, all part of an embattled but resolute tribe riding the wave together (matching language, approved talking points for doctors etc)

But with the trial, they are each going to be named, logged, recorded, identified, held personally responsible for their choices, with full scrutiny on them. I think that makes it feel less tribe-like, less of a "we're fighting the good fight together!" cult narrative. And much more of a personal, singular choice.

And that is harder to reconcile and justify and go ahead with, when you are lying in bed at 3am than when everyone round you is also part of it.

Is it possible that the trial was paused because not enough children were signed up? The bribes offered seemed to indicate that. If so, this is a good sign that the general public is more aware of the dangers of puberty blockers.