Hilary Cass sent a document to every single MP and Peer, justifying and defending the puberty blockers trial

This is NHS data. Of course they can find out whether patients are still alive & what medication they are currently being prescribed on the NHS. If there were a possibility that PBs caused cancer long term they would trace every single patient.

The data linkage study can only look at patient data that has already been collected. The PP suggested tracing each patient and asking them if they were happy/alive/on hormones. This is not allowed. If they don’t already know the answers to those questions they cannot find out.

We know that the adult gender clinics simply lost a lot of patients with no record as to why, and they also did not record whether patients were considering detransitioning or even had detransitioned. So we probably don’t have data on hormones (can be obtained privately) or relative happiness.

They can't contact them - for that, they would need prior consent.

They don't need prior consent. This is NHS data on NHS patients. The government passed a law (OK an SI) to allow the follow up of the data linkage study without obtaining patient consent.

How do you realise your child is trans between 18 months and 24 months? And think they'll hurt themselves if you don't do something? This is madness. This is what happens when no one says anything. I bet lots of people around that mother were whispering about how strange it was but never did anything. It's child abuse.

I sometimes think people talking about children at this age haven't had any experience with them as any sane person who has would know that making such a massive change for them is ridiculous. They can't even talk in sentences at that age. They're in nappies.

@TwoLoonsAndASproutnot quote posting due to length but Christ on a bike to that WellBN parent.

In a way though it just shows the waters we are all swimming in. That parent will have been supported by schools, MH services, social workers, gps, friends and family to do this.

Parents who don’t want to walk this path with gender distressed children have to fight against all of it. They are isolated and their stories rarely told. The agencies above treat them as bigots.

It is a mess. In such waters it’s hardly a surprise that the PB trial is being waved through.

I wish I believed that there would be consequences for these people, but I don’t think there will be. I hope someday it is clear that transiting kids is a massive medical scandal but I expect it to be met with a “oops” and a shrug

I think the MPs are only too relieved to drop any highly worrying issues and just leave it to her.

I think this ‘fictional’ child should not be dropped. We know parents do this to young children not just from what @noblegiraffe has just said, or the odd news report or experience, but also from Dr Azeem Hakeem formerly at The Tavistock and Portman.

Doctors and teachers should be asked to look out for it, not endorse it.

@BonfireLady, this was posted on another thread:

Thingybob · Yesterday 13:38
There is an interview with A WellBN mum on the latest Whats the Trans podcast, Episode 159 at just over an hour in. I found the story of the true believer mum and her child incredibly sad and it does highlight what an impossible task it will be trying to help these families.

The timeline as I understand it from the interview.
Mum realised her son was trans at between 18 and 24 months old.

This child was absolutely one of the children that would kill themselves if they didn't get the necessary treatment.

It is not clear when he was socially transitioned but he had an awful time in and out of school due to 'transphobia' and 'hate crime' and never completed a full year.

The mother did what she had to do to save her child, including remortgaging her house for £40K, by taking them to GenderGP when the child was around 10.

They were put on PB's and then CSH a year or so later.

Around spring 2024 when access to PBs was getting difficult she briefly went with Anne Health.
She transferred to WellBN later in 2024 and Dr Sam Hall took over the prescribing of PB's and CSHs. Treatment that was life saving and the child briefly thrived.

In Spring 2025 the stress caused by the investigation of WellBN resulted in the child developing Anorexia.

The child is currently still getting PB's and CSHs but has dropped out of school and has spent the last 15 months in their bedroom becoming emaciated. The child has recently gained weight but scans have confirmed osteoporosis and they are now unable to weight-bear.

The child is still 16 months away from their 18th birthday and the mother doesn't know how her child will survive. She wonders if she will soon be arranging a party or a funeral.

There are definitely kids turning up at secondary who have been treated as the opposite sex all through primary.

Very true. Also, even the many of the most intelligent people can be manipulated by an appeal to their emotions.

I'm increasingly wondering if all the "Jo" children (i.e. the "real" children that Jo represents) are actually autogynophilic males who have shared their sob stories of when they were younger during the research that she did,, with the (self-described) framing that they truly believed themselves to be the opposite sex from a very young age.

If the child is fictitious then perhaps the parents are too. Perhaps that's why Baroness Cass wasn't concerned about multiple examples of abusive parents. Perhaps instead she's met multiple examples of autogynophilic males who have successfully persuaded her that they never knew themselves as anything other than a girl..... and she decided that the easiest way to make that make sense to the MPs was to create a single persona who had grown up knowing "she" was female, regardless of how that happened..It certainly explains the plot holes regarding how this child (who apparently represents many children) became so convinced, yet the situation that the child was in wasn't seen as concerning by any adults.

Edited for clarity.

encouraging them to think more flexibly about their identity is rarely successful, regardless of what their natural trajectory would have been

This sounds like one of the TRA assertions which is always stated without any evidence, that someone's "gender identity" can't be changed, which is why changing the body to "match" the "gender identity" is favoured over psychotherapy to help the person accept their body as it is.

But in this case, the child's gender identity has been imposed on the child by the parents, making it an example of conversion therapy by the parents. And if it has already been externally imposed on the child, surely the reverse process is also possible.

What I’m curious about, is how Baroness Cass can be so certain that encouraging them to think more flexibly about their identity is rarely successful, regardless of what their natural trajectory would have been … if there’s no data on this? No clinical trial has been conducted. Is it okay to strongly assert some claims on little evidence but not others, if so why?

For me, her doubling down is most likely professional ego. She put it in report, ergo it ought to be done. Suggestions of not doing it, is felt as a professional slap in the face. Even the most intelligent of people can be driven by emotion.

They can't contact them - for that, they would need prior consent. My understanding is that they could have access (obviously anonymised) to their records - it would be theoretically possible to know if they are on cross sex hormones, if they are on other prescription drugs... I don't know how good NHS records are. From this point of view I agree with @noblegiraffe, the quality of the data won't be great. Still, as @AmaryllisNightAndDay said, it's worth having the linkage study done before the puberty blocker study, as it can inform the trial design, the consent form, even the opportunity of the trial, if the data are of relative good quality.

The data linkage trial might also give us information about how many children/now adults are still taking cross sex hormones. Depending on the quality of the data, it could be very valuable information.

Agreed. Just tracing & following these former Tavistock patients can give very valuable information. Are they still alive? Are they still taking CSH? Are they happy? If they just traced every patient & asked those three questions there would be a mountain of valuable data.

It is reassuring to know that it's not just me, but it's annoying for both of us now. Grrrr.

The data linkage trial might also give us information about how many children/now adults are still taking cross sex hormones. Depending on the quality of the data, it could be very valuable information.

Victoria Smith, as always, has an interesting take on this: Too late now - by Victoria Smith - The OK Karen

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime (One day I may work out why moving down the box I am replying in causes my unfinished post to send: sorry about the textless wonder above this.)

There is something odd going on. I've scrolled and had a couple of posts send, without me hitting the 'post' button

AimsAndObjectives
The alternative, as you say, is a lifetime of lies.

And expensive and damaging medications, let's not forget, and sterility. And probably unpleasant physical conditions such as eg osteoporosis and incontinence.

(One day I may work out why moving down the box I am replying in causes my unfinished post to send: sorry about the textless wonder above this.)

AimsAndObjectives

Although the children are assenting, they don't really know what they are assenting to. How could any child understand agreement to possible brain damage and early osteoporosis? Although their parents are consenting how can any parents morally say yes to these things either, on behalf of their child? How many of these assents/contents have come from children and their parents believing that they'll die by suicide if they don't get this "treatment"?

There is this first and foremost. That these children do not know and cannot know what they are agreeing to. Second, any parent consenting on their behalf either does not know what they are consenting to happen to their child or ought to be also evaluated for their mental health fitness along with their child’s. How many parents will be told or understand the typical conveyor belt between PBs and CSHs? And then surgery.

The reason we’re in this mess in the first place is precisely because of how many healthcare professionals are true believers and have advocated and affirmed. From Tavistock to gender clinics to the BMA to the likes of sad times Dr U to the hospitals denying an opposite sexed patient was housed on a ward to the medical researchers putting their names to the primacy of ‘gender identity’ in literally thousands of journal articles. All insisting that humans can change sex and/or that gender is more meaningful than sex. Yet, we are meant to trust that this will be an outstanding clinical trial? Doubtful.

The fictional boy/ real children like him who were transed as toddlers could even begin by telling the world they realise they are “Non-Binary” or “Gender Fluid”.

I agree. He's already halfway there. He obviously knows he has a male body, otherwise why is he not socialising? His parents need to explain why they lied to him and the clinicians need to explain, in as professional and supportive and caring a way as possible, that he will never be female. It sounds harsh, but some children have to be told some difficult truths, because life hands some children some shitty deals.

The alternative, as you say, is a lifetime of lies.

This child has only been socially transitioned. With enough psychological support he could revert to being the boy he is, and he won't have to fear being found out as masquerading as someone he is not.

No child should have been put in this position of living a lie.

Many people haven't and don't, but someone in her position really ought not to be ignorant of his case.

She does seem to think, like John Money did, that if you pretend a boy is a girl for long enough, from a young enough age, you can then create a girl from a boy using medication and surgery.

Has she not heard of David Reimer? Does she not know what happened to him?