The BBC have just peak-transed the nation

[MutantDisco]

Did anyone see the report on the evening news?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-46634595/should-the-nhs-pay-for-transgender-fertility-treatment

Daily Mail interview:
'Transgender woman who has to shave twice a day claims the NHS is 'mucking around with people's lives' as she waits more than six months for hair removal surgery
Jessica Samson, 39, said it has been a battle to get a service she is entitled to
Funding was approved for the treatment in July but she is still waiting
She worries her experience is the 'tip of the iceberg' for transgender people'
(extract)
A transgender woman said she is regularly reduced to tears because the NHS is keeping her waiting for laser hair removal surgery.

Jessica Samson, 39, has to shave twice a day while she continues her more than six month wait for the permanent procedure.

She was approved for the treatment in July as the final stage of her gender reassignment but progress is slow, she said.

The NHS needs to 'realise they are mucking around with people's lives', according to the frustrated IT customer service worker.

After a complaint in December, Miss Sampson has now been offered a consultation appointment but worries her case is the 'tip of the iceberg'. (continues)
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6554031/Transgender-woman-shave-twice-day-says-NHS-mucking-peoples-lives.html

As an aside, the Daily Mail provides the following advice in an insert box alongside the article above:

"WHAT IS GENDER DYSPHORIA?
Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity.

Its exact cause is unclear and was initially thought to be psychological.

But more recent research suggests it may be the result of abnormal development when a baby is in the womb, possibly due to genetic or hormonal factors.

The first signs of the condition can appear at an early age through a child refusing to wear clothes typical to their gender, or refusing to take part in boys’ or girls’ activities.

For most children this behaviour will pass but, for those with gender dysphoria, it often persists into adolescence and adulthood.

Treatment can range from simply living as the gender they identify with to taking hormones and having surgery to change their sex to match their gender identity.

A survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission of 10,000 people found that about one per cent of the population experienced issues with their gender identity to some extent.

If you think you or your child may have gender dysphoria, consult your GP who may refer you to a specialist gender identity clinic, or contact support group Mermaids via mermaidsuk.org.uk."

Poor transwoman, not getting immediately for free something that actual women have to pay for. One of my best mates has PCOS and has to shave/wax a LOT, it really gets her down and makes her feel crap. But no funding for hair removal for her, oddly enough

How can genes or hormones impact whether a toddler likes to wear skirts? How do cis normative hetero males in Saudi Arabia manage, considering their genes must be all up in arms about this violation of their gender?

Bless.

My DM had to wait so long for cataract surgery she either had to go private or go blind, and even then the NHS would only pay for one eye. Drat the NHS for not rushing hair removal surgery to the top of the waiting list for highly limited, over used, publicly funded resources and pushing other less special people out of the way.

And I'll bet the tip of the particular iceberg of delayed NHS surgeries that Miss Samson is worrying about doesn't include anyone who isn't trans.

Omfg! Hair ten

Oops! So appalled I pressed send too soon! Can not believe hair removal for transgender is approved by the NHS!

And it's absolutely nuts that women can't decide for themselves to be sterilised etc, but autistic troubled trans kids can!

It's just so insane I think my head might explode.

It’s that word again that I hate ENTITLED

ME ME ME

This is the NHS report published following a 2017 public consultation of health services for adults with needs due to gender identity which is likely informing many of the current declarations and discussions:
www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/gender-identity-services-for-adults/user_uploads/report-independent-analysis-consultation-responses-gender-identity-service-specifications.pdf

They can pissoff with the pronoun thing. They/their is plural, end of!

Just to add to the crazy has anyone tried to get an NHS sterilisation?

I managed it about 15 years ago in Croydon, aged under 30, but they made me see two doctors, a gynaecologist and a psychiatrist(!!) before they very grudgingly agreed. One of the doctors refused to progress the request until I'd brought my exH to an appointment as well.

That BBC report seemed fairly pro trans to me. Certainly not overly critical. I don’t think that will have any effect at all and I wouldn’t expect the BBC to broadcast anything that might be overly critical of trans ideology. RT however have broadcast a very trans critical documentary called ‘I want my gender back’ but I don’t think it was widely seen outside of YouTube which means not widely seen. Link is here if you want to watch it: m.youtube.com/watch?v=-pxxBQm114k

Infertility is defined by the WHO as a disease of the reproductive organs

It's classified as a disability under the ADA as a physical impairment affecting a normal life activity (which it defines reproduction as)

Infertility of heterosexual couples is a physical impairment of normal reproductive function - something isn't working as it should. Fertility treatment for lesbian couples is generally only funded on the NHS after at least 6 cycles of artificial insemination ie there has to be an equivalent to TTC naturally and not getting pregnant - simply a lack of sperm isn't in and of itself an impairment of normal reproductive function.

Given NHS funding for infertility treatment is a postcode lottery and being slashed left, right and centre, I can't see IVF being offered at all on the NHS in a few years time - so only the wealthy will be able to have children if they suffer from infertility.

We don't freeze sperm on the NHS before a man undergoes an elective vasectomy, choosing to render himself sterile.

Why the NHS should provide fertility preservation for those choosing to make themselves sterile, when infertile couples whose reproductive organs don't work properly through no fault of their own can't get treatment on the NHS, is baffling.

bananafish81 It seems that TRAs are seeking parity with the NICE fertility protocol for people diagnosed with cancer.

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs73/chapter/quality-statement-9-cryopreservation-before-cancer-treatment

Indeed! We've been told that being trans isn't a medical condition, that gender dysphoria isn't necessary to be trans, that transition isn't necessary to be trans, and that demedicalisation is key to self id

So not a medical condition and therefore TOTALLY comparable to cancer, obvs

Although we've seen that as an argument for mastectomy as a priority for trans over cancer patients, so apparently so...

Given that fertility preservation depends on the ability to have gone through the stages of puberty sufficient to produce mature gametes, the more kids who are made sterile by starting on puberty blockers, the fewer will have the ability to consider fertility preservation as an option in any case. What a win for activism, a generation of sterile children.

4/1/19 Mirror
'Britain's first transgender husband and wife 'excited' to start familyJake Graf, who transitioned 10 years ago, and his wife Hannah, who transitioned five years ago, married in 2018 after connecting over social media through mutual friends '

(extract)
"Keen to have children, the couple are starting 2019 by looking into the surrogacy process.

Jake said: “Our next plan is now surrogacy. So we have already spoken to several agencies about our surrogacy journey and done lots of research.”

The couple will meet with an agency for the second time in January to see what the next steps will be.

Jake said: “We are very excited about the potential of starting a family. And if surrogacy doesn't work for us for whatever reason, then we will go down the adoption route.”

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-first-transgender-husband-wife-13811912

Women are not incubating machines for other people to use as they see fit.

Catherine Bennett Observer article on surrogacy,
'Keeping up with the Kardashians means paying other women to have your babies
If a group of men have their say Britain could soon have its own lucrative surrogate industry'
(extract)
"After decades in which the UK reproductive industry has lost out, thanks to the insistence on expenses-only carrier altruism, to less regulated overseas gestators – with resulting legal struggles for parents – the Law Commission has been asked by the Department of Health to consult on surrogacy law. Already, for any would-be clients and reproductive entrepreneurs who fear that the commission might be influenced by Sweden’s recent decision to ban surrogacy, the discussion looks likely to proceed along more pragmatic lines. Sir Nicholas Green, chair of the body, has noted that while British surrogacy has increased tenfold in 10 years, the law remains “quite cumbersome”. Streamlining, you gather, is a priority. Moreover, to the extent that the ethics of trading in gestational services, anywhere, do come up, they will be debated – more great news for the womb trade – by a body whose leading figures are, exclusively, male.

In charge of reviewing laws on UK womb rental will be five law commissioners who could only be at the paying end of such a transaction: Green, assisted by Professor Nick Hopkins, Stephen Lewis, Professor David Ormerod QC and Nicholas Paines QC. While the men are undoubtedly conversant with the ethics of gestational labour, and more sensitive to women’s biological reality than Maria Miller, it’s not great for appearances. That part of the female population that notes the uncomfortable parallels between current surrogacy practices and the regimes imposed in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale may need reassuring that Green’s commission had not, before the off, accepted that outsourced gestation, in docile human containers, is so unremarkable as to require only improved paperwork." (continues)

current thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3470970-Catherine-Bennet-in-the-Guardian