Use of puberty blockers has doubled since NHS "clampdown"

[FannyCann]

archive.ph/2023.11.26-221155/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/26/use-of-puberty-blockers-doubled-since-nhs-clampdown/

Hopefully that is the archive link to article in the Telegraph.

"The number of children being put on puberty blockers has doubled since the NHS pledged to clamp down on the treatment, The Telegraph can disclose.
At least 100 children – some as young as 12 – have been put on the drugs to prevent pubertyy_ since July 2022, when health officials said the practice would be stopped outside of clinical trials after a damning review of children’s gender services."

It goes on to say:

"But in the 12 months to July 2023, the number of children beginning puberty blockers on the NHS rose to 83, which is double the average of the previous two years.
Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to Leeds General Infirmary and University College London Hospital, which receive referrals from the Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), revealed at least a further 17 children started blockers between July and October this year, bringing the total to at least 100 since last summer.
This does not include patients given blockers privately or by a GP, while FoI exemption rules relating to small numbers potentially identifying individuals mean this is the most conservative estimate.
The Tavistock has referred dozens more for assessments by hormone specialists."

@wiseoldcat

Unfortunately with so many people seeing it as 'woke ideology', many people are against investment in these kinds of services

Children's mental heath services in general are completely inadequate, and I don't believe it's anything to do with being seen as "woke".

Of course there should be more investment just in general; and we need research on why we are seeing an increase in cases of gender dysphoria, especially with females. I don't actually know how you research that, but anyway.

And of course investment in properly designed trials, however tricky that is going to be, involving "gender affirming care". And I would want this to include trying to cure young people, so basically the "conversion therapy" that so many people see as unethical and want banned, I want to see continuing research into trying to increase the numbers of children that can recover from gender dysphoria.

Utterly depressing and yes, we are completely failing a generation of children and failing to protect them from such a dangerous ideology.

Yes I think that's the major problem.

Although I think there are indeed suggestions from some people that it would be unethical on the grounds that there is some limited evidence for puberty blockers, and so you can't have kids not getting this treatment in a trial.

I doubt we know enough to be able to say it's unethical not to give treatment, rather than we have an urgent need to run properly designed trials and we don't know which kids we are going to be "harming" here.

Tenuously linked, but relevant:

Does anybody know when the Cass Review is to be published?

Per their website the FAQ suggested that it would be ready by the end of 2023.

The blog/Twitter feed hasn't been updated since May '23, as far as I could see.

It's baffling isn't it.

The Cass report comes. The Tavistock closes. The NHS clamp down.

In actual fact all this results in the Tavistock just setting up again with the same people in dispersed hubs and someone sounding the charge, and we're sterilising and medically damaging vulnerable kids faster! In bigger numbers! Yay!

This is some mad muppet world where nothing seems to work or make sense, but obviously at some high agenda, damaging and ending the reproductive capacity of gay and Autistic and mental health suffering kids is a really, really big goal.

We can't fix the bloody roads but my God can we sterilise our kids.

I wonder if what is going on is similar to what happens in the US with gun control legislation?

As soon as a government says they are going to outlaw certain types of firearms (at least more common ones) there is a huge demand for them and sales go way up. People want to get hold of them while they can.

In this case, you have people worried that there may be less access to puberty blockers. They are still legal (and in fact have legitimate uses) so a doctor can still prescribe them. But doctors and families think, if we get this now, we will be established patients and may continue to have access. If we wait, maybe they will ban giving them for this.

What is really needed is not just guidance, but clear evidence that this is completely inappropriate as a treatment path. And that has to be incorporated into all the best practice recommendations.

There isn’t any evidence of benefit but there is lots of evidence of harm so it would be absolutely appropriate NOT to give PB which is why Cass said they must NOT be given outside trials, ie the default situation is to not give them to children. The difficulty comes in the ethics of giving them. But you also do not have to give no treatment - you could, and should, offer psychotherapy.

Those not randomised to PB would have to go private to get them if not in the PB aim of the trial. But in order to consent to either aim they would have to understand what the evidence actually shows so this would need to be carefully explained to them, something that does not appear to be the case at the moment with therapists fast tracking them.

Really?

The moment they 'announce' they are trans. Tell us, how long do you think a moment is, because the waiting time for kids to get a first appointment with the NHS is about 5 years.

It's a pretty long moment, isn't it?

I really wonder, in a sane world, if it would even be possible to have a randomized trial of minors for this. Anything risky with kids is very complicated for research.

The moment they announce they are trans they are affirmed all too easily -changing pronouns etc.
From that point on, everything is through the lens of gender as if it's a truth. So any distress about their body and how it changes through puberty is seen as something that needs to be fixed. This means that being on a waiting list is distressing in itself because it is interpreted as waiting for this fix.
Social transition is not a neutral act: it is the gateway to medical transition.

We all already knew this though, didn't we?

Without trials they should not be prescribed. There are loads of trials of medications for children happening as we speak. I know of a friend’s daughter (age 4) just signed up for one that if successful will change her life. I know another who sadly died whilst was taking part in a randomised controlled trial for cancer. The only unique aspect for ‘trans’ is the size and power of the lobby group and their disregard for evidence in favour of ideology.

That’s not what igmum said though is it?

She said the moment they announce they are trans they are ‘medicated to hell’.

Thats just incorrect though isn’t it?

If they go private that ‘moment’ can be very short.

Yes, the number has doubled to 'at least a hundred'. Hardly the 'generation being experimented upon' that some seem to think is the case; it's ot exactly dispensing it all over the place. I spoke to a teacher recently who had taught many trans kids but none of them had ever got puberty blockers, the numbers are still tiny if you're worried about it.

Only 100 more children sterilised, had their bone density drastically suppressed, their brain maturation halted and given life long dependency on medication.

Nothing to worry about.

Look the other way and you won’t see another hundred coming down the tracks….

Sorry @PlanetJanette but we have affirmative therapists, counsellors and teachers who ignore the underlying causes and focus on the 'trans' element. Damaging irreversible medication can be delivered from unethical online providers as fast as the delivery companies can reach you. GPs used to push children towards the Tavistock (don't know if they still do) even when it wasn't required or requested and even knowing that waiting for the Tavistock means no other support. Yes, children get medicated and their trauma increases because, no matter how much medication they take, they can never ever be the opposite sex. Then many wake up, too late, with mutilated bodies and permanently damaged minds. There are over 50,000 detransitioners on Reddit's detransition group. This is a tragedy. Young people need proper mental health care that doesn't come with an agenda - rainbow or otherwise - and doesn't pathologise their ills. CAMHS has stopped functioning so they don't get that at all any more.

It's not that simple.

You can have trials for children, but there has to be a much higher benefit vs cost situation than with adults. That is, the cost of not intervention must be high enough that it clearly outweighs what they think the risks of the drug might be.

It's not at all clear that this is true with puberty blockers for sex dysphoria.

But that is not an argument against a trial. It is an argument against prescribing puberty blockers at all. The uncertainty allowed for a clinical trial is higher than that allowed for general practice. There is no drug or medical intervention that would be considered too harmful for a trial but ok to prescribe for the same condition outwith one.

Just to be clear there is NO EVIDENCE to puberty blockers alleviate distress or make transition easier. There is ample evidence of the harms they do. Because of this the current NHS recommendation is that they are NOT prescribed for gender dysphoria.

I have a DC on puberty blockers for a valid medical reason. It’s for a fixed amount of time and they’ve very recently come off them.

Am just wondering if they would be included in the statistics above? They have a medical condition and it’s absolutely nothing to do with gender identity (I’m as GC as they come)

It should be diagnosis specific. There are also men on them for prostrate cancer and women for endometriosis (though this is strictly limited to only six months no more than once in a lifetime due to the impact of these drugs).

Eliza Mondegreen in Unherd

https://unherd.com/thepost/puberty-blocker-use-on-the-rise-in-the-uk/

Has anyone seen this yet? I think it has just been translated to English subtitles.

This is the blurb:

There are currently almost 3,000 young people on the waiting list for gender care in the Netherlands. They are vulnerable adolescents who are frequently subjected to discrimination. Many of them suffer severe mental distress. Doctors at the gender clinic in Amsterdam are pioneers in care for transgender young people. The treatment developed here years ago is now used worldwide. Now, criticism is growing. International experts are questioning the scientific evidence put forward by the clinicians in Amsterdam. Zembla investigates the Dutch transgender protocol.

The review process allowed strategically savvy people to outmanoeuvre the interim Cass findings if need be.

Youth Gender Services are delayed allowing other services to pick up the slack. And perplexed GPs to take over prescribing initiated by private services as they don't feel they can refuse. (Let's no address why they find it so straightforward to ignore women's requests for diagnosis and treatment in so many other areas of health.)

All of the specialised commissioning services are plausibly captured by appointments that skew a particular way (affirmation only).

The staffing of MAGIC (with clinicians such as AH) and Indigo (Manchester) were both well-positioned to early transition teenagers to adult services where there would be no impediments to self-diagnosis and treatment on demand.