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

Thank you.

I must admit that I have only been on my phone over the past few days and so have not read the letter myself.

Evidence is very limited on the effects to executive function with some studies showing no change with the use of PB for less than one year. But we won't know for sure without more studies.

But in any case, even if a young person is 'frozen in time' temporarily it still gives them more time in order to experience congruence with the presumed innate gender identity. The 'suspension' provides adolescents with GD time and rest before making definite decisions on gender reassignment without the distress of developing secondary sex characteristics that could well exacerbate GD symptoms as well as impulsive decision making.

I think that there is evidence that gender dysphoria is high in males with the DSD XY 5ARD (Imane Khelif's DSD) who have been raised as female from birth.
Presumably there is a history of clinical help for these people to ultimately adjust to the fact that they are men, with male bodies. I wonder whether that knowledge could be tapped in to in order to help children such as 'Jo'.

There is evidence that puberty itself resolves gender dysphoria in the majority of/ vast majority of cases- see Cass Review final report for summary of this evidence and references.

Surely this is the lowest risk route with long term benefits of zero medical side effects.

Edited to correct typo

I wondered whether, in between these two views (dedicated TRA ideologue and has knowledge but can’t use it) that she sees the harm, but feels it’s so heavily embedded that she needs conclusive proof to shut the whole thing down properly and internationally, not just in the UK. Guess that’s close to @Seethlaw s theory, but without her having specific information she can’t use.

If she simply cut out UK use of PB, without conclusive proof, it will linger, through illegal procurement and internationally, possibly making a comeback.

I don’t understand her at all though and her current push for it to go ahead seems extreme, compared to what I had expected, which was that she would stop after all the abuse she received. The idea that she might have caved to the abuse to reach her current situation is too unpleasant to contemplate.

innate gender identity

No such thing. It’s an oxymoron.

This is the 'Time to Think' theory comprehensively addressed in Hannah Barnes's book of the same name. There was no evidence that it achieved anything other than locking the children onto the pathway to cross-sex hormones.

it’s weird to be so obsessed about this trial over the data linkage study and intervention to stop parents buying unregulated and illegal drugs off the internet for their children.

This ⬆️

Luckily most people are sane. The more publicly she pushes for this experiment to continue, the more people will see how insane it is to do it. I will remain grateful to Cass for exposing the lack of medical evidence in this field, including how that is now so much clearer in school safeguarding law. But I draw the line at her advocating for a carefully selected group of children who meet an utterly unachievable threshold so that they can be experimented upon.

The selected children will be ones that are the most likely to continue to identify as trans who have stable mental health.... amongst a cohort where she openly acknowledges that we have no way of knowing who will desist (but the majority will) without intervention (even though many already have had intervention via social transition) and where it is by very definition a mental health issue to believe that your body has been made wrong (unless there is a physical impairment. And obviously we don't describe disability or physical abnormalities in that way).

The trial will be recruiting Schroedinger's transchildren. Both highly likely to remain trans-identified without intervention and highly likely not at the same time.

Edited for typo. Hopefully every typo this time.... I missed the edit function availability window to catch everything in my last comment 🤦‍♀️

Bearing in mind they've been giving these drugs to kids for around 30 years, WHY IS THE EVIDENCE LIMITED?

We should have OODLES of EVIDENCE.

I suspect it depends on the individual. According to Cass:

“A small number of these young people are going to benefit from a medical pathway for their gender distress," she told MSPs.

“But equally for probably a larger number their gender distress is going to be solved in myriad other ways – whether that is has been a sort of developmental questioning period that spontaneously resolves or whether they resolve uncertainty about their sexuality and then their gender questioning resolves."

While I appreciate lower risks & side effects being a consideration, many medications are still trialled & widely used with serious potential consequences so this isn't really contrary to what's broadly a standard of practice. I'm on HRT myself for menopause which carries serious risks & I'm sure many mental health drugs that are prescribed to minors are equally unknown in both health risks & long term consequences.

Ultimately taking treatment risks is about trade offs & the better of two evils.

Indeed. That nobody is pushing for the data linkage study as the top priority must just be a coincidence.

Surely nobody wants to stop the evidence of any long term impact being made public? 🤔

Correlation is not causation. Continuing on with cross sex hormones might simply be a function of correct self selection & screening.

Ultimately taking treatment risks is about trade offs & the better of two evils.

Definitely. Personally, I think experimenting on children's brains with an unknown impact on their lifelong cognitive function (which could be a known impact if the data linkage study was done) is unlikely to be the better of the two options. Where the two options are to do the experiment or not.

Yet her 4 year study of all the clinics and reports and evidence across 30 years on the whole of the planet....found no evidence of this. Weird.

That may be true when it's an actual illness or physical health condition which is being treated. But these children aren't physically ill. They may have mental health problems, but that is best treated by normal treatments for mental health, not by stopping the natural development of their bodies.

“A small number of these young people are going to benefit from a medical pathway for their gender distress," she told MSPs.

Correlation is not causation. Continuing on with cross sex hormones might simply be a function of correct self selection & screening.

Well which is it? If it’s a “pause” and “time to think” logically you’d expect some children to think it’s not for them.

If it’s correct selection, then how can anyone, including Cass, be sure they are accurately selecting the right children, given we know that there are children who grew up and realise they have been wronged?

It can’t be both a pause and correct selection, and neither hypotheses are supported by the data.

Really? How was 'causation' proved then?

innate gender identity

People have personality and character, there is no such thing as 'gender identity'.

According to Cass for a select few medication is the best option & that only makes sense given 'normal treatments' don't necessarily always resolve distress.

Cass was personally pushing for a PB trial two years before her report was published. She did not admit that until a couple of months ago. It certainly wasn't explicit in the report.

She is literally behind the entire thing. This is her idea and her baby.

Imho she's been a true believer all along and twisted the science in the report to recommend a PB trial she wanted. Nothing in the report actually supports it.

You tell me, you are the one claiming something was proven.

So explain how these children can be accurately selected.

Which 'select few' and where did she detail how to identify these 'select few' prior to treatment?

No, even the GIDS staff accepted that this was unlikely to be the case given the very difficult conditions that they were working under which meant that they were unable to give each child they attention they deserved. It is worth remembering that many of these children had been referred from CAMHS, and the GIDS staff mistakenly asumed that this meant they had already been thoroughly screened. Whereas, in reality, CAMHS had referred the children as soon as GD got a mention, in order to reduce their own heavy caseload.

Exactly. If gender is a social construct, how can anyone have an innate identity that matches what has been socially constructed? Pure luck?

”My innate identity is to like trucks and dinosaurs, so lucky that society has constructed a gender that fits that!”