The Times - Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier review -Janice Turner

[Melroses]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/irreversible-damage-by-abigail-shrier-review-resisting-the-transgender-craze-8mzrt3gk9

I have just come from reading this and cannot find a thread on it.

As usual, Janice Turner's writing is amazing, jam packed with properly researched fact and compelling.

Not a word is wasted.

"None of this would matter if transition made these girls happy. But while initially testosterone makes them fearless and swaggering, the Tavistock GIDS (gender identity development services) clinic’s own report shows no long-term improvement in psychological wellbeing. This rare piece of research was published reluctantly only a few weeks ago, perhaps because it threatens an entire ethos. In clinics from Finland to Australia red flags are rising. “Detransitioners” are speaking out. Medical negligence class actions will begin."

Does anyone have a share token, please?

Here’s a share:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8ae2187a-4528-11eb-901d-af02e798b787?shareToken=24f0709be27622ad5ae6140831aaa78a

Janice is such an outstanding writer - as you say, not a word wasted

Another great article! This has been a good week for sunlight streaming in on this.

Do doctors really grin while holding jars containing healthy body parts they have destroyed?

This book seems to be hitting libraries now: I was interested to see that my local library service has a generous number of copies. The neighbouring areas have few, if any.

The same applies to Rachel Rooney's book My Body Is Me.

@Nomnomarrgh

Do doctors really grin while holding jars containing healthy body parts they have destroyed?

Yep.

@Nomnomarrgh

Do doctors really grin while holding jars containing healthy body parts they have destroyed?

thepostmillennial.com/young-canadians-are-being-sold-gender-affirming-top-surgery-on-instagram/

There was a Canadian surgeon famous for holding up buckets - I don't think he was the only one.

Social media goes to some people's heads. Free advertising.

It’s heartening to see such a cleanly written, sensible, stridently supportive review of this in a major newspaper. I was given this book at Christmas and have started, it’s every bit as good as Janice Turner says.

@Melroses Did you find that the Post Millennial was the only site carrying that story that wasn't a Christian site? Something's really wrong when the media ignores something like that. Although it is Canada, so maybe I shouldn't expect better.

I found the link on a previous MN thread about a report about a fundraiser for "top surgery" so I can't claim to have uncovered it. I have only seen the picture on social media otherwise.

YouSetTheTone - glad it lives up to expectations

Beautiful writing. Cuts through the crap and the lies

Sorry Nomnomarrgh

At least they were in buckets.

There were some in jars previously, in a Museum of Transology

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3068147-museum-of-transology

Excellent piece and so important to encourage people to read this book.
I am horrified by what is being done to girls.

From that Post Millennial article:

"Dr. McEvenue, Dr. McLean’s (until recently) colleague at the McLean clinic (he is listed as a surgeon here now), is as well a paid consultant for Johnson & Johnson, whose products and services are employed in these surgeries. Under their sponsorship, Dr. McEvenue participated in a gender reassignment surgery panel last September in Markham, Ontario. You can watch the panel and his performance here.

In the video, you see a marked transformation in Dr. McEvenue’s pitch. He’s jettisoned the Instagram-friendly Santa hat and the buckets of breast tissue. He is now the smooth, Madman-esque embodiment of Corporate Guy, representing a mammoth company that brands itself as so LGBT-friendly they are bursting with Pride and self-congratulation.

Dr. McEvenue tells us that there could be as many as two million people with gender dysphoria in Canada – about 1.5% of the population – considerably more than the DSM-5’s estimation of .002-.003%. Not only is the wish for top surgery not indicative of a disorder, he says, but it is even “not a distress,” and in fact it may not be necessarily exclusively related to gender dysphoria. Sometimes it is just “breast dysphoria,” he says, a term new to me, which turns out to mean that “you don’t like your breasts.” If that is your issue, Dr. McEvenue is there for you, and will remove them. Because he has a “passion” for what he does.

At the 14:30 minute mark, Dr. McEvenue inadvertently demonstrates the health community’s general dumbing-down of the transition process that he is abetting.

He says, “Believe it or not, when a patient wanted top surgery five or ten years ago, they had to go to a psychiatrist to get diagnosed.” (Here he grins, presumably at the craziness of the very idea that a woman wanting to lop her breasts off might benefit from sorting through her motives with a mental health expert). He continues, “If a woman comes to me for breast augmentation, I don’t make her go to a psychiatrist. I say, okay, are you an adult? Do you understand the surgery?” (laughter, applause. This audience really really wants to believe that top surgery on teenage girls is no big deal.)"

This is absolutely sickening. "Breast dysphoria", no referral required for double mastectomy. To this guy dysphoria just means "wants surgery". And he is clearly not some back street quack.

I still haven't read Abigail Shrier's book but will order it now it's available in the UK.

“If a woman comes to me for breast augmentation, I don’t make her go to a psychiatrist. I say, okay, are you an adult? Do you understand the surgery?”

Do you know, I think anyone wanting cosmetic surgery should have a psych eval, whether its a breast augmentation or a double mastectomy or whatever.

I'm glad that this is now getting wider notice though, thanks to the ongoing incredible efforts from Janice Turner and others like Abigal Shrier.

“If a woman comes to me for breast augmentation, I don’t make her go to a psychiatrist. I say, okay, are you an adult? Do you understand the surgery?”
A friend used to work as a clinical psychologist and had to do evaluations of women wanting breast surgery on the NHS. It was probably gatekeeping for reductions and augmentations, but still....

Social media goes to some people's heads. Free advertising.

There's that hideous picture of the slimy London breast surgeon, posing topless with two of his topless satisfied customers.

Call me old fashioned but I prefer my (male) surgeons in a suit and tie.
And preferably not with a record of being disciplined by the GMC for not following the consent procedure correctly.

And this wonderful quote is why I continue to fight so hard:

"..this movement is dominated by trans women and gay men, who have not endured the turbulence of female puberty. With few brave exceptions, they decry feminists (including many lesbians) who see in these tortured girls their younger selves.."

Actually that thought formed part of my submission to the Women's Equality Committee - must go and have a look to see if they have published my submission yet.

Excellent point, Spongedog

I still catch my breath or pinch myself sometimes when it strikes me afresh that doctors are operating on children because of the absurdity of the born in the wrong body narrative.

It's quite unbelievable.

Thank god for women like Janice Turner. She has been grimly determined to report this issue. Over and over. Factually and fearlessly she has given people a voice.

A grown up, grounded woman.

Finally. An end needs to come to this blatant abuse.
Stonewall, Mermaids and Pink News.
We see you.

Someone should show this article to that dimwit Philip Pullman.

Excellent comments below the article too.