'i newspaper' article - What it's really like to seek healthcare for your trans child

[PickleFish]

inews.co.uk/opinion/trans-children-treatment-gids-hormones-blockers/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign

"The media paints a picture of 'fast-tracked' services and easy access to hormones. The reality couldn't be more different"

Comments that puberty blockers are well tested, safe, and reversible, and that there is a deeply uninformed media debate that suggests treatment is readily available and accessed quickly.

If I Recall correctly, all media reports have stated that waiting lists are very long. The point is that when you do go to your first appointment that is when the "fast-track" begins.

Read the article! There is a long waiting list and then a long slow process. No fast track at all.

To get the full picture, read this article as well.

www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/04/14/frankenstein-designer-kids-what-you-dont-know-about-gender-transitioning-will-blow-your-mind.html

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3560157-Frankenstein-Designer-Kids

I have read it, and the others. I thought people here might find it interesting, given that the 'i' hasn't published much on the topic to date. I find it concerning that it portrays other media as inaccurate and uninformed.

I find it concerning that it portrays other media as inaccurate and uninformed.

I agree, and my comment about the other article wasn't aimed at you - just for anyone who wanted to get a fuller picture of what's going on.

The writer's links to their family blog & twitter account at the end of the article are relevent for context to the article

They have been consistantly very critical of GIDS Tavistock (not just with regards wait times) & have been active trans rights activists & campaigners.

They have personal experience of the system. Does anyone else on this thread?

Article says that puberty blockers have been used safely on trans kids for almost 30 years. Surely that's incorrect?

Its a bit more than experience of the system.

"Offensive, dated, harmful: 2019 research from the UK Children’s Gender Service"
FEBRUARY 13, 2019 / GROWINGUPTRANSGENDER
(extract)
"These are clinicians working in the monopoly service for children and families like mine. We have no alternative but to force our children spend their time with these people – people who hold damaging outdated views about our children, or we need to go outside of the NHS. Even before the age of puberty – when there is no requirement for medical interventions, there is pressure from schools, GPs, family members, social services, to reassure them that our children are registered in the NHS service. A service that causes harm.

The institutional transphobia in children gender identity services in England and Wales should be a national scandal. But due to wider transphobia, skepticism, ignorance and cisnormativity, no one gives a damn about the harm caused to our children." (continues)

growinguptransgender.com/2019/02/13/offensive-dated-harmful-2019-research-from-gids/

Really interested in finding out what harm is caused to children by asking them to come to terms with what sex they are.

Article says that puberty blockers have been used safely on trans kids for almost 30 years. Surely that's incorrect?

Professor Carl Heneghan was interviewed on BBC Panorama & as a consequence of his analysis concluded that 'informed consent is not possible'

BMJ EBM Spotlight paper:
'Gender-affirming hormone in children and adolescents – Evidence review'
Posted on 25th February 2019

(extract)
"Gender dysphoria occurs when a person experiences discomfort or distress because of a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. Gender dysphoria can arise in childhood and adolescent which raises many questions about how best to handle the condition. This post sets out the current evidence for gender-affirming hormones in adolescents and children to aid decision making. (continues)

"Conclusions

There are significant problems with how the evidence for Gender-affirming cross-sex hormone has been collected and analysed that prevents definitive conclusions to be drawn. Similar to puberty blockers, the evidence is limited by small sample sizes; retrospective methods, loss of considerable numbers of patients in follow-up. The majority of studies also lack a control group (only two studies used controls). Interventions have heterogeneous treatment regimes complicating comparisons between studies. Also adherence to the interventions are either not reported or at best inconsistent. Subjective outcomes, which are highly prevalent in the studies, are also prone to bias due to lack of blinding, and many effects can be explained by regression to the mean.

The development of these interventions should, therefore, occur in the context of research. Treatments for under 18 gender dysphoric children and adolescents remain largely experimental. There are a large number of unanswered questions that include the age at start, reversibility; adverse events, long term effects on mental health, quality of life, bone mineral density, osteoporosis in later life and cognition. We wonder whether off label use is appropriate and justified for drugs such as spironolactone which can cause substantial harms, including death. We are also ignorant of the long-term safety profiles of the different GAH regimens. The current evidence base does not support informed decision making and safe practice."
blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2019/02/25/gender-affirming-hormone-in-children-and-adolescents-evidence-review/

thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3518188-BMJ-Prof-Carl-Heneghan-Evidence-Based-Medicine-Oxford-Panorama-Trans-Kids-Gender-affirming-hormone-in-children-and-adolescents-Evidence-review-concludes-There-are-significant-problems

see also recent Times' reports of serious Safeguarding concerns raised by HCPs:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3553935-Times-article-calls-to-end-transgender-experiment-on-children

Whilst some senior medical professionals have whilstle blown Duy of Care & safeguarding concerns about the current medical treatment of children at GIDS, the author of this article (along with some other Mermaids parents, TRAs & affirmation approach private clinics & doctors) seem to be criticising the NHS GIDS service for not enabling the controversial medical interventions sooner/more easily.

Really interested in finding out what harm is caused to children by asking them to come to terms with what sex they are.

I'd like to know this, too. Maybe Skyzalimit could explain.

Treatment is available quickly - for a price. Dr Webberley and co. are in the field for that reason. The essence of the activist complaint is that watchful waiting itself is wrong and unquestioning affirmation should be the default.

It's not about fast track or not. All health services in this country are under great strain and waiting lists are long - particularly relevant here is the CAMHS waiting lists. We all know, however disingenuously we like to bat our eyelashes, that blockers and hormones are not impossible to access if you have money or the right coaching, and that this notion that this course of treatment is proven safe is a bare faced lie. But cult members and grifters gonna cult and grift, I spose.

Article says that puberty blockers have been used safely on trans kids for almost 30 years. Surely that's incorrect?

That does sound a bit unlikely. And what do they mean by safely?

Professor Carl Heneghan was interviewed on BBC Panorama & as a consequence of his analysis concluded that 'informed consent is not possible'

100%, or close to 100%, of children who go on puberty blockers end up on cross sex hormones. How can a sexually immature child, who is too young to legally engage in sexual activity, consent to a course of action which will mean that they never experience normal sexual function?

They have personal experience of the system. Does anyone else on this thread? Usually the answer to that is yes... as the wife or mother of, or transwomen themselves.

the help that these families desperately do need regardless of whether or not the child has dysphoria (in the sense we used to understand it - Mermaid's new definition basically includes all children ) is psychological; long term with a well trained psychotherapist, not just a couple of sessions here and there.

i see no shame in that! i'm someone who has been in and out of therapy a long time. trans activism's insistence that mental health and life circumstances have nothing to do with the cause of trans identification is pretty ablist imo.

but the way that trans activists have gone about what they do is surely going to scare away an awful lot of good therapists from working with young trans identifying patients. they will be put in a bind where they are damned either way: either face ostracising, doxxing, attack, loss of professional membership for wishing to do what psychotherapists do which is to find the root causes of presenting issues. or they can be affirmative which will prevent them working in any depth and run the risk of a lawsuit later on when a child who has taken a medical pathway to sterilisation grows up and asks which adults were culpable for this.