Telegraph/Mermaids and Tavi

[SigourneyHoward]

I can't link the story as I don't have an account but the Telegraph have published this

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1662545555015213058?s=20

Oops GPS that wouldn’t refer to the Tavi

I've thought for a long time that SG is one of those people who are not bright enough to know what they don't know. Dangerous when they get into a position of power.

Agree but, again, there is no excuse for the Tavi. All areas of medicine deal with pressure groups. Often they are far more benign than Mermaids, but they are still capable of distorting good practice - for example, Pharma companies often hide behind genuine and well-meaning patient groups, to get them to push for funding for an expensive new drug when the reality is that it conveys little additional benefit. You can't just uncritically accept everything that a charity or pressure group demands of you.

I think what I am trying to say is that the pressure on the Tavi from Mermaids was not that exceptional. What was exceptional was the way that the Tavi chose to respond.

The bloody woman made up a thing called gender identity. Taught it in schools and referred children for treatment on the back of it.

Not news?? She's fucking unhinged.

I think what I am trying to say is that the pressure on the Tavi from Mermaids was not that exceptional. What was exceptional was the way that the Tavi chose to respond.

Yes. Because she attributed a made up condition to all these children coming to her charity. And then convinced the Tavi that the condition was a genuine thing. Because how could it not be? All these children have it?

Yes, of bloody course, the Tavi should have been able to see through the ideology.

I'm really curious why they went along with it. I'd love to talk to Polly Carmichael and understand her thinking.

Is it about bowing under pressure or wanting to be at the forefront of medical developments?

Susie Green reminds of that saying about having a hammer and everything looking like a nail, but with her it's GI and transphobia. She probably needs a diagnosis.

Comments on Green’s FB post suggests that the Telegraph has also been looking at the Welsh Gender Service.

I think what I am trying to say is that the pressure on the Tavi from Mermaids was not that exceptional. What was exceptional was the way that the Tavi chose to respond.

And yet even that wasn't enough for Green. From her email:

Journalist: Do you have any response to the allegation that you had undue influence over the service and were pushing for medicalisation of children?

Me: Undue influence? I wish. I have watched families being failed time and again by the services that should have supported and protected them. If I had undue influence the service would be a very different one to what is experienced in reality.
Gender affirming care for trans youth is recognised by healthcare professionals WORLDWIDE as safe, effective and even life saving for trans youth.

I assume the different service Susie Green wants GIDS to be is something like GenderGP, who have prescribed opposite-sex hormones to children as young as 12.

The lack of care shown to these children by GIDS just didn't go far enough for her. She seems to want puberty blockers and opposite sex hormones to be handed out like sweets to every child who shows the slightest reluctance to conform to regressive stereotypes.

If I was one of the GPs that had had their professional judgment wrt patient care overridden by SG and Mermaids, AND was now being subjected to slurs on social media by SG, I would be pretty fucking ropeable at this point.

I really really hope she gets what's coming to her.

@LarissaFeodorovna

Absolutely. Calling GPs “transphobic” because they won’t push children into a lifetime of medicalisation.

I think it’s worth archiving the words and actions of the main players in this scandal in waiting.

Exactly. I imagine the GPs concerned must have felt strongly that it was not in their patient's best interests to refer, even though I would assume that these families are quite complex patients to manage, with lots going on for them medically, socially and psychologically, but also potentially quite difficult and demanding. Just writing a referral would definitely have been the easy option to avoid conflict and pass the pt onto another service. So if the GP still wouldn't refer, then they must have really thought that refusing the referral was the right clinical decision, even in the face of patient and family demands.

It must have been gutting to find that they had had their judgment overridden behind their back, and now to find SG gloating about it and accusing them of transphobia... 😡

At least SG herself has put her terrible judgment and attitude into the public domain on multiple occasions, so there will be no shortage of receipts when her chickens hopefully come home to roost.

If I was one of the GPs that had had their professional judgment wrt patient care overridden by SG and Mermaids, AND was now being subjected to slurs on social media by SG, I would be pretty fucking ropeable at this point

I imagine that all the GPs who referred patients to an NHS service at a highly respected institution, believing that they would get the best possible care, are also pretty furious. It's only in the last couple of years that the Tavi's issues have been widely known. All the medical establishment - BMA, regulators, Royal Colleges, medical schools - are captured, so most GPs will have had no idea what was going on until it hit the mainstream media.

If I hadn't been gender critical and on FWR and GC Twitter, I would not have had a clue until recently. I might well have referred patients with gender dysphoria to the Tavi, believing they would get safe, thoughtful care.

Some GPs out there will be having to live with the fact that children have been permanently damaged and sterilised as a result of their referrals, made in good faith. It is awful

Is Dr Harrop licensed to practice again? Seems he's working for Welsh Gender Services.

Yeah, he was only suspended briefly.