James Esses has just written a Substack piece about Age UK’s new Trans Issues factsheet.
Like Mr Esses I’m rather staggered by the casual promotion of polypharmacy & surgery to a demographic where there is a massive push to the reduce the former & it is well-known the latter is best avoided. I mean, best avoided across all demographics; but the elderly have a profile of elevated risks & reduced benefits.
No mention, in either the factsheet or the evaluation, of the not-insignificant issue of the combination of “gender affirming” surgery & dementia.
In fairness to Age UK, it’s important older trans people have access to support like this - things like a list of information to share with carers & HCPs about their bodies & medication are really important for the people on both sides of the equation. There’s a bit of a disjointed feel to the contents in that sense - a brief moment of “your body hasn’t magically changed” in the midst of lots of woo. If we see an uptick in elderly widowers transitioning, we’ll definitely know who to blame.
They’re due to review it in July 2024. If anyone’s time, you’re able to contact them to request the sources they’ve used when writing it. “Gendered Intelligence” seems to be responsible for the bulk of it, so would be interesting to know what/who if anything/one else they were working with on it. (Can’t do it myself atm 😔)