No more puberty blockers for children from the NHS - reported in the Times!

[MrsOvertonsWindow]

This is massive - and long overdue

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/97ce2e81-2884-42f5-bb82-2a2778f2cc91?shareToken=9568e79f0683beea68ffe5e978b05a29

Piece by piece it is crumbling. I suspect what will be left will be what it always should have been - the truth. Before a philosophical belief was amplified to be somehow worthy of the demands on society that have been made. That some people believe they are not what they materially are. But that society doesn’t have to change to reflect those people’s wants.

Hopefully the Webberley's credibility will be well and truly fucked with that donation.

Banging on about trans youth, helping them and saving lives, etc, desperate to inject some kind of pure motive into their behaviour.

Being financially supported by some middle-aged perv who pays a young man to fulfil his sexual fantasies rather blows the lid off all that faux altruism.

Has Webberly said anything lately? Last time I looked she hadn’t tweeted for ages.

There were some blog pieces about her on the GenderGP site last summer, after she was inexplicably cleared by the GMC, but she doesn’t seem to have started practicing again and GenderGPs business model has recently changed quite a bit (lots of complaints on trans forums) so I don’t think she’s anything much to do with it now?

She seems to be mysteriously absent.

Susie Green is still posting the occasional trans related thing on Facebook, absolutely no change of heart there.

Presumably Green and Webberly aren’t talking after Green was heard plotting to take over GenderGP at the Irish WPATH event?

Clearly I should’ve checked before posting!

Webberly tweeted 3 days ago for the first time since December:

https://www.gendergp.com/message-dr-webberley-wpath/

Presumably Green and Webberly aren’t talking after Green was heard plotting to take over GenderGP at the Irish WPATH event?

was that what it was! I wondered what heralded her oddly swift ejection

Here’s that blog post in full:

Dear Mums and Dads, guardians and children, teenagers and families, GPs and hospital doctors,
This is a terrifying time for trans people right now, we are facing an awful time in history where trans rights are being denied, people’s identities are being debated, attacks are being launched, medical care is being withdrawn, harmful policies are being introduced.
I understand what impact that has – this means that trans youth (and adults) do not have access to essential puberty blockers and sex hormones on the NHS. GPs and local hospitals feel scared to help you and the specialist clinic is not operating. The future feels bleak.
I want to explain to you that the current NHS view is not in line with the true specialists from across the world.
In November 2022, the World Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) made a statement regarding the proposed specification saying:
‘Overall, WPATH, ASIAPATH, EPATH, PATHA, and USPATH find serious flaws in
this document, which sets out a plan for a service for gender diverse children and young people in England that is likely to cause enormous harm and exacerbate the higher rates of suicidality experienced by these young people in the context of ongoing
pathologisation and discrimination. WPATH, ASIAPATH, EPATH, PATHA, and
USPATH urge NHS England and Wales to reconsider its approach, which is now
contrary to the progress being made in many countries around the world and incongruent with statements from the World Health Organization (2017) and the Yogyakarta Principles (2007) relating to the right to the highest attainable standard of health.’
In November 2023, WPATH and EPATH came together and said:
‘Transgender and gender diverse young people across the United Kingdom are facing a health care access crisis.’I totally agree – the new policies are deeply harmful and are denying care that has been evaluated as being safe and necessary and appropriate. Denying essential care to any young person is not acceptable and risks harm.
I urge you not to accept this approach. The NHS has a duty to provide trans children care, to prevent harm, to prevent the life-changing and stigmatising effects of undergoing a puberty that does not align with their gender identity and not being able to access the right hormone to give that child the puberty that does align with their identity.
Stand your ground, keep your head up and when a doctor denies a child the care that has been proven and evaluated to help, ask them a very simple question. ‘If you won’t provide this care, what steps will you take to make sure this child’s mental and physical health is safe, and if harm comes to this child, who will I hold responsible?’
In 2015, I founded GenderGP to help with this very problem. GenderGP will not be following the NHS guidance, it will be following International Guidelines and best practice – which means puberty blockers for transgender children when they are seeking to prevent the changes that will happen to their bodies during puberty. And it means providing gender-affirming hormones to allow that child to go through the puberty that matches their gender identity. That is what compassionate, understanding, essential care looks like and it is totally legal, appropriate and right for trans youth.
Between 2017 and 2023, as a GP, I underwent formal Fitness to Practice proceedings covering three transgender patients:
a 12 year old to whom I prescribed testosterone
a 16 year old to whom I prescribed testosterone
an 11 year old to whom I prescribed blockers
The Medical Practitioner’s; Tribunal Service determined that those prescriptions were appropriate, and necessary, and correct. I hope that this gives you the confidence to help your transgender children get the care they need.
I hear your pain, I feel your anger, and I want the best for you and for every child in this country, regardless of their colour, their age, their religion, their sex, their gender identity, their sexuality. These characteristics are protected for a very good reason.Whether you are a doctor or a parent, keep your chin up, continue to fight for that child, do not let policy harm you. Stand together and fight together, I know you are right and I will always do anything I can to help you.
With the deepest respect, Dr Helen Webberley

The person who overheard the conversation was Corinna Cohn, the ‘disenchanted transsexual’ who co hosts the Heterodorx podcast with Nina Paley:

https://corinnacohn.substack.com/p/smuggling-hormones-to-irish-youth

Not sure of the timeline as to when Green left GenderGP, iirc she was only there for 6 months or so? Off to check now!

SG joined GGP in Feb 2023

Conference was in April 2023

Corinna published his* Substack piece in May 2023

SG’s departure announcement July 2023.

SG made some sort of non-announcement about an upcoming co announcement with Nancy Kelly but no actual announcement seems to have taken place. As far as I can tell SG is currently unemployed.

Nancy Kelly left Stonewall the same week as Susie Green left GenderGP:

It will be interesting to see who still stands by Webberley after that one.

Anyone - politician or public figure - who signposts to them at this point has some questions to answer.

Will be interesting to see the tumbleweeds from the likes of Jolyon.

On The Grift touting for business after the NHS announcement.

Hardly a surprise really. It's too tempting as an opportunity for Webberley

A long winded way of saying: I’m open for business, keep bringing your kids and ignore those bigots.

Sorry Red, should have read your post - I agree.

The NHS has a duty to provide trans children care, to prevent harm, to prevent the life-changing and stigmatising effects of undergoing a puberty that does not align with their gender identity and not being able to access the right hormone to give that child the puberty that does align with their identity.

How can Webberley be seen by the GMC as fit to practice when she believes that people can change sex?

Is that not just the feeling here?

Absolutely not just the feeling here.

That Times article needs sharing widely. So often when the surface of all this is scratched of these organisations working with children, this type of incident is revealed.
The silence about it on the BBC etc is shameful - and partly why we get the useful idiots on here claiming we're all right wing conspiracy theorists - especially on threads about children & safeguarding which is very telling.

Legal rulings have real world implications.

International Guidelines and best practice set by which international health organisation? Is it WHO? Best practice set by whom?

Between 2017 and 2023, as a GP, I underwent formal Fitness to Practice proceedings covering three transgender patients:
a 12 year old to whom I prescribed testosterone
a 16 year old to whom I prescribed testosterone
an 11 year old to whom I prescribed blockers
The Medical Practitioner’s; Tribunal Service determined that those prescriptions were appropriate, and necessary, and correct.

IMO, this claim holds some validity. If the GMC professional standards authority said it was perfectly fine for Helen to prescribe PBs to a 11 yr old (girl?) and prescribe Testosterone to a 12 year old girl and there were no concerns with these prescriptions, then they absolutely are the ones to be held to account or blame.

Bad doctors make bad decisions and/or inappropriate or incompetent diagnosis and treatment interventions all the time. It is up to the regulator to maintain practice standards.

You think?

I disagree.

It will take time to rewrite this stuff.

The bottom is dropping out of demand for Stonewall/Mermaids advice. You can see it in their financials

There's also less desire to push corporate stuff on this - thanks Dylan - because there is a realisation that it's not always a positive marketing strategy which was the assumption before. So companies are doing assessments over whether it's worth them doing. There's plenty of companies who are still doing it, but it's making them look like their are behind the curve and frankly a little dated / out of touch now.

Public organisations will be the slowest to change because quite honestly, they are poorly managed to an extent that they are years behind as they aren't responsive to the real world. A couple more court cases will quickly remedy that.

There's a pretty poor article in the Guardian today, regarding puberty blockers, masquerading as a "What You Need to Know," when in fact, it's simply saying that there's very little evidence, it's poorly understood etc, regarding the known harms of puberty blockers.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/15/puberty-blockers-what-are-they-and-what-are-the-concerns-about-them

For example:

Studies of children who received puberty-suppressing hormones for precocious puberty suggest the therapy is generally safe, but questions remain. Some researchers note that scant data on important outcomes such as cognitive development, fertility, and the risk of cancer and metabolic disease make it hard to draw firm conclusions about its long-term impact.

Webberley really is always on mission; this blogpost is arcane and fascinating in describing some of GenderGP’s online activity:

https://www.voidifremoved.co.uk/p/self-promotion

No. I don't think it is.

I think that ultimately because organisations can get taken to court, it will result in it happening because people have been so harshly treated and careers ruined they have nothing left to lose.

There is clearly an appetite for these cases - there's loads in the pipeline and they are getting reported - that's unusual. So there will be widening awareness.

Councils are risk assessment in terms of getting taken to court because they are case strapped.

It's just that there will be time lag, resistance to it from the usual suspects but ultimately financials will dictate matters.