More than 70 children aged three and four were sent to Tavistock transgender clinic

102 replies

fromorbit · 27/12/2023 11:51

Even worse than we thought according to the latest findings:

In total, 382 children aged six and under were referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in north London...
A spokesman for the Tavistock said: ‘The GIDS pathway provides psychological assessment, treatment, and support for families, so we are unable to provide figures on those who have undergone physical interventions.
“The outcome of gender identity development in younger pre-pubertal young people is uncertain and so “treatment” is not provided.
“Most often there would be a one-off discussion with the parents/carers to provide support and advice.”

Telegraph article:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/26/tavistock-transgender-clinic-children-aged-three-nhs/

Remember common practices in the Tavistock are probably still going on in Scotland and Wales.

More than 70 children aged three and four were sent to Tavistock transgender clinic

The clinic, which had no lower age limit on referrals, was shut down last year

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/26/tavistock-transgender-clinic-children-aged-three-nhs

OP posts:

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FrancescaContini · 07/01/2024 11:58

MyEyesMyThighs · 07/01/2024 10:07

I know a four year old who went to the Scottish equivalent and, to be fair to the NHS, we're told the child was too young to understand gender beyond sexist ideas and recommended role play that was more general. So playing superheroes rather than the specific male Marvel ones the kid liked, for example, to essentially take sex out of being a superhero.

Parents obviously ignored advice and went straight to Mermaids instead.

I've known two small children transitioned and neither was distressed before they were faced with the choice of what to be. It was asking them repeatedly if they want to be a boy or girl that started the distress. It's way too big a decision for a small child but the distress was assumed to be dysphoria. One child was v close to my child and kept crying about being worried about getting it wrong, upsetting people, but not about changing sex specifically.

Very upsetting to read this. Is anyone investigating the parents in these cases?

Brainworm · 07/01/2024 12:07

"I guess what's difficult to know is how often the distress is caused by the child being told they shouldn't like the things they like, as per the story of SG and Jackie where the child was constantly told no boys don't play with that etc"

You would expect the distress described above to be qualitatively different to that which would warrant a referral. If not, GIDS would pick this up.

I am not a defender of GIDS and I know it well and how it changed over the years. Since the waiting list has grown, those whose distress is transient and reflects upset about not having their way, typically don't take up the appointment when it comes around.

I think the majority of the patients do need/would benefit from psychological treatment and the cases are complex and multifaceted. The distress often relates to a mix of issues linking to biological factors, psychological factors and social factors. If you think of these 3 areas being dials from 1-10, any combination of scores in each area are at play.

This issue I have is that of GIDS not attending to all the dials in depth. In my view they should form and test a broad range of hypotheses in all 3 areas to develop a rich understanding of the child and the context in which they experience the distress. The affirmation model prevents this and is, in my view, ideologically based, rather than reflective a scientific approach aligned with what is expected in other areas of health care

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