Trans teen ends their life after not receiving gender affirming care

[DysonSpheres]

Article in the mail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12282819/Noah-OBrien-teenager-committed-suicide-denied-gender-affirming-care-Westmead-Hospital.html

It's a tragic story. I feel very very sad for the young person in question and obviously his parents are in great pain. It seems his dysphoria was dismissed and not specifically treated, but this is phrased as not receiving 'gender affirmation' and I'm not sure what it means in this context it's a bit obscure in the article. In any case, sadly on this occasion the teen did resort to suicide.

Stories like these must be scary to parents with children experiencing gender dysphoria as 'suicide' has been said to be a risk of non-medical affirmation, delaying of puberty blockers etc.

This happened in Australia so I'm not sure what, if any support is available for trans identifying children and/or parents there. Specifically, it seems the child's care was dictated by having gone through puberty. That's the central part.

I'm so sorry. It's an awful, awful illness.

No one ever mentions that the risks of anorexia AND autism are both separately much higher than dysphoria, both sets of needs get so little airtime and publicity by comparison. So sorry for what your family must be going through.

I agree with this. Poor child.

What I do not understand is that the article says that "Noah was worried about returning to school in his new gender identity following the holidays."

Not sure how 'gender affirming care' would have helped...?

@annonymousse so sorry

Maybe it’s an ethical issue too. Psychologists/counsellors are often required by their professional bodies to prescribe “gender affirming care.” If you have ethical concerns, as many do, it may be safer to say you don’t specialise in this area and refer on.

My understanding would be that it is covered by IPSO guidance in the UK because it has been published under a UK website/URL, even if the source material has come from an Australian news team within the Mail group. IPSO has an online complaints form with reporting on suicide as a category.

(It's been a while since I've commented on a thread - I had taken a mental health break, then come back as a lurker... But this one spurred me in to action. This is utterly reprehensible reporting).

So sorry @anonymousse 💐 this must be a triggering thread

Absolutely.

When I read in the Cass report about the reluctance of GPs, CAMHS and other local services (some of whom might know the child and their history/diagnoses) to treat gender distressed children, this occurred to me too.

If I were a medical professional compelled by my professional body (and perhaps the law) to affirm a child's gender identity and not delve into any of the other possible explanations that my training would usually prompt me to consider (but which might be considered transphobic), and if I knew there was a specialist gender service I could refer the child to in order to avoid an ethical dilemma myself while discharging my own duty to that child, I think that would be the only option available.

I think in the UK, compelling CAMHS and local services to handle these cases themselves will force medical professionals to confront their professional and ethical conflicts, as they'll be given no choice if there's no-one to pass the buck on to. It won't be pretty to start with (and more careers might be ruined, depending on how far the Cass review goes), but hopefully once the dust settles, it will empower medical professionals to apply their training and expertise to support these poor distressed kids themselves and to provide the timely help they need.

What I do not understand is that the article says that "Noah was worried about returning to school in his new gender identity following the holidays."

Not sure how 'gender affirming care' would have helped...?

I wonder if this might be to do with the fact that all the medical professionals involved were completely avoiding dealing with the gender distress and seemed to suggest the only way to help Noah with gender issues was to see some sort of highly-qualified special expert (hence the long waiting list).

A child (or anyone) always feels better if they're reassured that what they're going through is within the range of normal human reactions for the situation they're in, lots of people experience it and that they'll get through it eventually. It might be a case of reassuring a child that it's totally normal when they have anorexia to get fixated on their changing body, or that it's totally normal for someone experiencing severe anxiety to feel x, and so on.

It just alleviates the anxiety and distress around all of this a little bit if you know that although you feel terrified, or completely despondent, or have got some distressing and destructive compulsive behaviours going on, etc, that's within the range of normal human reactions to what you're going through, and so although it feels impossible and overwhelming right now, your therapists have supported other people experiencing similar before, so you're in good hands and you'll get through it.

Instead, it sounds like Noah was faced with the therapists saying "ooh, no, this is completely new to me and I have zero idea how to handle it, so in my professional opinion, you need to see a special gender expert about this kind of psychological distress as I'm not qualified to deal with these extremely unusual problems at all".

And so, having been told that gender distress is so unusual and complicated that even a hospital dealing with complex conditions such as anorexia can't handle it, Noah was facing trying to navigate a social transition at school completely on their own.

It must have felt terrifying knowing that there's something so wrong with her that it's even scaring the doctors into not being able to intervene. She must have felt so alone and hopeless with all that messaging from medical staff.

It's such an awful way to treat an already distressed child and it's almost unbelievable that the psychologists involved didn't twig that telling Noah that they were planning to ignore the distress completely for several months or longer might actually increase Noah's distress.

Sorry, just to add: how seeing a therapist who's prepared to at least address Noah's gender distress might have helped is that if someone, whether a "gender specialist", family GP, parent, psychologist or anyone, had explained to Noah that what they're feeling is totally normal and goes hand-in-hand with puberty and body distress and anorexia, etc, Noah might not have felt so terrified about their own predicament or about how socially transitioning might go.

Obviously I don't think having a double mastectomy would have helped Noah, but having anyone in their life saying "feeling like this is a totally normal human reaction to the heavy stuff you're dealing with and you'll get through this" might have helped.

At least compared to what actually happened, anyway.

I book marked this article the other day which may be irrelevant or put a different face on the decisions the doctors were making, or avoiding making.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12278551/Calls-girls-eating-disorders-offered-HRT-prevent-osteoporosis.html

If anorexia by itself causes brittle bones I could understand why they'd be reluctant to start a treatment, hormone blockers, that would compound it.

Thanks for the caring messages. I don't want to de-rail the thread but anorexia is a very cruel disease. My poor niece battled it for her whole adult life. She was 15 when she was diagnosed.

This is so sad. And about your niece annonymousse.

Most unfortunately, the poor young people as well as suffering from gender related distress and associated conditions, are also being fed a constant drip of the idea that they are at risk of harming themselves. By those who claim to be supporting them. This in itself puts them at increased risk. Particularly as the reality of their sex is something they can't actually escape, and at some point any intelligent young person is going to realise that.

annonymousse I'm so sorry.

All your posts have been balanced and insightful. Really appreciate them.