Safeguarding Is Being Introduced for Gender Medicine

[RichardBarrister]

It appears that thanks to the efforts of a prominent UK detransitioner who has been permanently harmed by ‘reassignment surgery’ he felt pushed into when he was mentally very vulnerable, things are changing.

Ritchie Tullip has received word that directly as a result of his case, a gender clinic has advised a patient seeking breast removal surgery that they will have to go in front of a panel for full assessment.

Quite astonishing that this wasn’t happening previously and as demonstrated by Ritchie’s case there was little or no mental health assessment or therapy to ascertain whether removing his genitals was the right move for him (it wasn’t).

If any other patient presented at a clinic with severe emotional distress and a request to remove body parts such as hysterectomy etc they would most likely be refused but at the very least offered some therapy or alternatives. Why should patients with gender dysphoria be treated so poorly?

I just saw that on Twitter. About bloody time.

Sounds very promising. Is there any indication of what the panel's approach will entail?

Hopefully some kind of differential diagnosis so that any other presenting factors (e.g. unaddressed trauma, autism) can be addressed through therapeutic treatment first, with any surgical or other medical interventions being a last approach in the event that patients can't be helped to be at peace with their bodies through the therapy.

"First do no harm" - the Hippocratic oath has never been more pertinent.

This is great news Richard! For Ritchie and for all involved. I know that some of these detransitioners feel exhausted and on a roller coaster trying to navigate their lives and sometimes feeling just as love bombed by those who, I expect, are trying to support them politically but are in reality applying pressure inadvertently. As well as becoming an advisor, whether they wanted to or not, for others.

So, I hope this helps Ritchie to feel that he has done something else worthwhile. And that he takes a break if needed, or he removes himself from the spotlight.

The way I read Richie's tweet is that it is only treatments for detransitioners that need to go in front of a panel for approval.

https://twitter.com/TullipR/status/1656352175574904840

Yes. No evidence so far of such care being taken when someone wants surgery (or medication) to try to mimic the appearance of the opposite sex.

On the plus side, a health care provider (the NHS?) actually providing a remedial service to undo iatrogenic harms.

However, on the face of it, making it harder to undo or mitigate damage than to gain approval for (mostly irreversible) body modification treatments in the first place.