Parents kept in the dark by teachers about their 16 year old daughter’s medical transition

[rogdmum]

In this case the Head appears to have supported the parents’ wishes that their daughter’s social transition not be supported, but some teachers ignored this and even went further, keeping the daughter’s use of cross sex hormones secret:

“The couple found out how far their daughter had progressed with transitioning only after hiring lawyers to demand sight of school records. To their astonishment, the records showed some staff also knew their daughter was taking cross-sex hormones as a step towards making her body more masculine.

Subsequent disclosures showed she had also been using a chest binder to flatten her breasts, another troubling revelation the school had not shared.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c4af6f1c-1276-11ee-9673-09365d127a9f?shareToken=dcf6a82e739f6596fbb7897c6484f5a4

I wonder who was prescribing the blockers ? I bet it was gender GP, who was paying ?

At 16 this young person will have been presumed capacitous and was absolutely entitled to confidentiality regarding their medical treatment (whether that treatment was ethical is another question)

Nightmare. Thanks for the share token.

So it seems guidelines are needed for social services as well as teachers.

A GP prescribed cross sex hormones to a 16 year old without a specialist service involved?

This is in the South East where I am. It all sounds sickeningly familiar. There are no specialist services, the Tavistock has been closed down. It will not have been the childs' regular GP who prescribed this, but an online service.

Unfortunately there are some unscrupulous GPs in the U.K. who will prescribe cross sex hormones. Unfortunately there are also equally unscrupulous LGBT groups who know where to send these children.

At least once the lawyers got involved, the school were forced to disclose that they were aware that CSH had been prescribed.

Presumably you have evidence of this ? This is absolutely not my experience.

Also from the article: Gillick competence refers to children under 16. This is a shoddy piece of lazy journalism.

It’s all appalling but the CSH without parental knowledge is awful. Imagine your child needing urgent A&E admission, possibly unconscious. As a parent you are asked for medical history and current medications. CSH are not trivial, the treatment is experimental/off label so dose may be uncertain and length of treatment is relevant to complications. Would there even be a record in the child’s GP record if the CSH are being privately prescribed from an online service, possibly based outside the UK? This is so, so wrong on so many levels.

There is some shocking misconceptions on this thread. A sixteen year old does not need parental consent for any medical procedure or prescription, at all. In law they have bodily autonomy you will not be asked about medications any more than you would for a spouse or a close friend. It is up to them who they share the information with.

Schools should have no authority whatsoever. This is a huge safeguarding issue from the school. Do the parents have a case to sue?

Parents or guardians are still responsible for the child until 18.

She's NOW 16. She wasn't when these things were happening. "Her story started a few years ago when..."

I would put money on the fact no one was prescribing blockers for a 15yo without parental consent. However even if they were, I think it could be argued that Gilkick competence was used. That would be very difficult to contest particularly if the child was suicidal. We just don't have the details- as I said lazy journalism.

And she also has autism :( why am I not surprised - these poor girls

Not medically, not for capacious 16 year olds, seriously trust me on this.

They always have autism.

Yes exactly that’s why I wasn’t surprised

Capacitous

I expect that the local project group provided details of where to buy binders (without giving the list of serious negative side effects) and the details on which GP will provide the prescription. And we all know which one that could well be and that there is no exploratory therapy given, just prescriptions.

That poor family 😢

How can gillick competence even apply here anyway. You can't make an informed decision without information. And there isn't enough or any really on what happens to young developing bodies on blockers and cross sex hormones.

Its not like pregnancy amd abortion where we know after decades if information and reports if outcomes, what happens when underage girls have babies they don't want etc.

You cabt assess someone's ability to make a decision when there's not even enough info fir adults to make a decision.

Basically we can no longer trust schools. How are parents meant to hand over their vulnerable children with additional needs to these people...

This is disgraceful. The child was already vulnerable due to her autism. How dare this be exploited especially without her parents knowledge or consent. Have they a strong legal case?

You do wonder how some children are deemed Gillick competent when they have body dysmorphia?? Surely having a mental health condition makes you incompetent to make decisions.

What an awful awful situation

Gillick competence does not just related to reproductive medicine, there is case law in this. I did say it could be argued, not that I thought it was ethical or good medicine, which is why I am as sure as I can be that these blockers were prescribed by an online service not a family doctor and that it wasn't done using Gillick competence, although life saving treatment is an exception.

Do all the naysayers on here know what the waiting lists in CAMHS are like right now ? Also this child was estranged from their parents and children's services were involved- could you be sure they (the parents) were acting in their child's best interests.

Of course I do. This is one of the areas the Charities Commission is hopefully looking into during their investigation of Mermaids (as in, I sent the screenshots to them, maybe they are looking at it, maybe not), though I’m not claiming Mermaids was involved here.

Mermaids Youth Forum held a document with shall we say, “friendly” GP practices for children “lucky” enough to live in their area. Practices were widely discussed and shared with named GPs by children on the forum. In addition, strategies for lying to their usual GP in order to obtain bridging cross sex hormones were also frequently discussed (a separate issue).

I’m also aware of a GP who is providing his own child with puberty blockers. My daughter’s former school actually included this information in a subject access request to me. The GMC would like to know the name of the GP so they can determine whether or not an investigation needs to be carried out. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect the school has not provided this information to them.

I don’t ever make claims I can’t back up. 🤨