Am I unreasonable to be pleased that Puberty Blockers have been banned by the executive in Northern Ireland with unanimous cross-party support

[MrBungle]

Children are finally being protected and medical evidence listened to rather than noise loud activists.

Everyone deserves quality, evidence lead healthcare, especially children, that gender questioning youths have been so badly let down the last 20 years is a stain on the UK's history as bad as infected blood.

Now we need comprehensive, holistic mental health support for these desperate children.

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/executive-unanimously-backs-health-ministers-plan-to-ban-puberty-blockers-in-northern-ireland-4902683

But you were prescribed them to deal with a distressing and very real medical problem. Prescribing them for something which might be more related to what is going on in someone’s head, or their anxious feelings about their sexuality, or because they have been influenced by social media is another issue. Nor were your PB prescribed as the precursor to you being offered a lifetime of testosterone or oestrogen and including in the package irreversible surgeries, infertility , osteoporosis and heart disease.

I am pleased your treatment was successful, but please don’t confuse your treatment with the mutilation of young vulnerable children.

The Cass Review showed that what doctors were doing at the Tavistock - prescribing puberty blockers to children - was being done with remarkably little evidence. Doctors get things wrong, and in the case of treatment for gender distressed children appear to have got it catastrophically wrong. Puberty blockers were being prescribed to block normal puberty in children, a use for which they had never been tested. Like you I am inclined to trust that 'the experts' know what they're doing but increasing numbers of appalling cases of detransitioners show that doctors have been using unevidenced treatments which change a child's physical body to treat adolescent mental distress. At this point politicians have to step in and call a halt.

Absolutely not a concern to be worried about. The conditions these drugs are designed for are still
absolutely in scope.

Agreed. There is so much harm being done. Sterilisation, teenagers having double mastectomies etc . It's horrific and needs to stop.

Not to mention that since the Tavistock failed to keep proper records, not only of the initial diagnosis, but of follow ups to gauge the effect of what happened to their victims, and I use that word deliberately, incredibly valuable evidence as to the use of PB in pre and barely adolescent children, especially in their use in young girls, was lost or ignored, meaning that hundreds of girls were wrongly diagnosed, advised and then hung out to dry. It is hard to imagine another situation where children have been routinely drugged without basic clinical standards being met .

The deliberate loss of medical records is yet another scandal here.

It’s very heartening that people will put their political differences aside on such a massive issue as protecting children from medical experimentation and exploitation. Very good news.

This just about sums up your own argument doesn't it, an empty emoji....

Rare and welcomed, Labour and Conservative both saying the same things in Britain as well, heart warming. Means this won't be reversed

And the announcement has just been made that PBs will be blocked across the whole uk. Excellent news!

Happy days indeed. Permanently?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5228440-child-safeguarding-win-puberty-blockers-have-been-indefinitely-banned-across-the-entire-of-the-uk-for-off-label-use-precocious-puberty-use-remains

Good news.

And because Ireland used British gender clinics, I presume it's pretty much banned here too.

I think so.

The HSE has referred patients to Belgian / Dutch clinics I believe, but honestly, I think they'll be much more circumspect about what they do with the UK coming down so forcefully.

Does everything these days have to be so "for" or "against". Both of these statements are largely true, but contradictory, 1. children were harmed because professionals and peer pressure made trans cool. 2. Children with genuine dysphoria are being denied treatment. The reality is way less certain. Is it so difficult to have proper unbiased assessment to find the best way forward for each individual, based on their needs. Agendas and politics on both sides shout loud but ignore the needs of vulnerable children caught in the crossfire.

@olivia8888 I’d agree that gender questioning children need help but there is zero evidence that the help they need is puberty blockers and huge evidence they need time and psychotherapy.

2. Children with genuine dysphoria are being denied treatment.

There isn't any concrete evidence that 'treatment' would be beneficial though. Watchful waiting was the protocol until very recently and it seems sensible to prioritise this again

One MP who contributed to the debate today described a situation (don’t want to go into detail) where a child had been waiting for a long time for treatment.

As that treatment might have been puberty blockers, leading to cross sex hormones and possibly surgery, what I felt on hearing this was relief.

I honestly never understood how they were ever considered. They( even when followed by cross sex hormones)never changed the sex of the child/adult.
Who the fuck gives high strength drugs to a child when the best case outcome is staying the same albeit damaged sex.

I have no idea.

Perhaps one day I'll understand

The point is: we don't know what effect it could have on children, outside of it's use for precocious puberty. There are no good long term studies, and there can't be, because it's not ethical. So we shouldn't be using untested drugs on healthy children.

Most of us on here, me included, do not have detailed clinical understanding of the physical consequences of puberty blockers. There is conflicting information available and definitely more research needed. My understanding was that in the case of dysphoria they were used as a delay in order to give a person enough time to decide if they wanted to follow up with gender affirming hormones. It is very difficult to know if the reports of the side effects are exaggerated for political reasons or a valid reason to deny the treatment to everyone regardless? I suspect there a compelling anecdotes on both sides. I am suspicious of a total ban as it feels authoritarian?

Most of us on here, me included, do not have detailed clinical understanding of the physical consequences of puberty blockers.

I think you'll find there are women here who do. There is a lack of evidence that drugs used as "puberty blockers" improve mental health. What reason do you think young children and teenagers should be taking them for exactly?

Sorry meant to quote @olivia8888