Guardian article: ‘I’ve had to become my own doctor’: trans young people on life after the Cass review

[RoyalCorgi]

This is by Libby Brooks. I haven't read it but obviously it's going to be a balanced, reasoned look at the issues, giving full credit and recognition to Cass's credentials and impressive research.

Only kidding!

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/15/ive-had-to-become-my-own-doctor-trans-young-people-on-life-after-the-cass-review

Hannah was three when she started telling her parents she was a girl, not a boy. Her mother, Sarah, said her daughter had worn skirts and dresses to nursery, and at the age of seven changed her name and pronouns after requesting this for about a year.

But I cannot stress enough that everyone who knows Hannah, including her GP, Camhs and social work, believe she needs puberty blockers and that the NHS should be providing this care.

All these professionals and the parents have failed this child by telling him from the age of three that he could become a girl. His whole life, he's known nothing else and now he has to go through male puberty. This makes me so cross. What did they think would happen when he grew up.

Couldn't agree more.

Our last next-door neighbour had four kids and one of the boys loved dresses, dolls, glitter etc. They just let him wear and play with what he liked. There was no pretence that it made him a girl. It was so refreshing and I hope it continued.

I just find this so difficult to get my head around.

In any other branch of medicine, if a treatment was found to be lacking in evidence base and to be possibly harmful, and consequently withdrawn, would people be rushing to procure it illegally for their kids? Or thinking 'phew, dodged a bullet there, I nearly gave my child poorly evidenced harmful treatment, thank goodness we found out before ot was too late! ' ??

And if they were trying to procure it illegally for their kids, would the Guardian be running sympathetic articles?

Or would the press be calling for social services to be involved with these parents trying to be DIY Doctors? It's really astounding how deeply this ideology has embedded itself.

They expected him to be put straight on puberty blockers so he never grew up or went through puberty and the put him on cross sex hormones whilst bullying and gaslighting everyone that he's a girl/woman.
I won't comment on the type of parent who would do this to a child but I'm sure that you all have your own opinions

They expected that from the age of three? Are they insane!

But I cannot stress enough that everyone who knows Hannah, including her GP, Camhs and social work, believe she needs puberty blockers and that the NHS should be providing this care.

Even though as Cass demonstrated, there is no good evidence that they lead to positive outcomes for patients? And that there is emerging evidence that they lead to bad outcomes? Apparently 'everyone who knows Hannah' is fine with that though. Sure let's take the risk eh? It's not like we're taking about PEOPLE'S FUCKING LIVES here.

ETA: I now see this isn't The Archers thread. Sigh.

EDIT: lol

I don't even know that many parents and God knows I'm not interested in their children, but even in my limited social circle I know 2 parents who have primary age kids that thought they were the opposite sex.

It's a normal development phase.

All of them grew out of it with no drama.

If you tell a 3 year old they really are the opposite sex, yes all kinds of shit will hit the fan at puberty.

It's mad, isn't it? So often when I read this stuff, I think: what am I missing? Am I the crazy one here?

We know that there is no good evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers. We also know that the small amount of evidence there is suggests the likelihood of long-term harm.

But even if we didn't know that, then surely anyone with a modicum of sense and capacity for moral reasoning would instinctively understand that giving children powerful drugs to block puberty is the wrong thing to do? After all, puberty is something all humans go through – need to go through - in order to become adult humans. We could guess, if we didn't know it, that stopping puberty is likely to cause psychological and physical harm.

We also know that humans can't change sex, so that the eventual outcome for these children is not going to be that they become their desired sex, but rather that they face difficult, complex surgery, lifelong medication, possible infertility, possible poor health, all in order to become someone who, at best, does a convincing imitation of being a person of the opposite sex?

It all seems so obvious to me. What is wrong with these parents, and with journalists like Libby Brooks that they can't see this?

At 3 a child is just beginning to develop theory of mind....they sure as hell don't know anything as complex as transgender. I don't understand how parents are allowed to do this, given fabricated illness induced by a parent (munchausen's by proxy) is considered child abuse and an offence.

I notice the careful balance in this article. Four cases who complain they can’t get pharmaceuticals and how many who say it was a good job they didn’t because they turned out to be content with their birth sex after all?

I do agree it is desperate that children who are believed to struggle like this aren’t getting holistic therapeutic care.

They’ve had this article planned for months - the request for contributions went out soon after the Cass report was released.
It’s interesting that they chose to release it on the day they publish the outcome of James Else’s’ process, including details of the letter from Metanoia.

But even if we didn't know that, then surely anyone with a modicum of sense and capacity for moral reasoning would instinctively understand that giving children powerful drugs to block puberty is the wrong thing to do?

It certainly makes the practice of giving drugs to girls to stop them growing "too tall" look positively benign by comparison.

AstonScrapingsNameChange · Today 15:47

In any other branch of medicine, if a treatment was found to be lacking in evidence base and to be possibly harmful, and consequently withdrawn, would people be rushing to procure it illegally for their kids?

I know, what if I wanted to be bled for lethargy? Or mercury for constipation? What if I insisted that I knew that I absolutely had to have it?

If it is true that all those professionals are agreeing with the parents, about the "need" for medication, then they should all be reported to their regulatory bodies. The social worker, particularly, should not be encouraging using illegal medicine.

Everybody? Including GP, social care and CAMHS? What makes this child so special?
I really thought the madness might stop after the Cass Review.
Got to go, just off to order some leeches and maggots for future use.
(actually, thinking about it, that’s not so daft)

So I can see a boy who likes to wear dresses, an autistic child whose black and white thinking meant that if they didn’t feel/dress/behave like a stereotypical member of their sex then they must be the other sex, a child who was unhappy with the way their developing body looked and felt during puberty and a child who wanted to get onto blockers as the first step in a very defined pathway to cross sex hormones.

Seems to me that the ban is doing exactly what it should tbh.

The fact that these individuals want to circumvent the ban by going private or procuring the drugs online doesn’t mean the ban isn’t valid or necessary.

Hannah was three when she started telling her parents she was a girl, not a boy. Her mother, Sarah, said her daughter had worn skirts and dresses to nursery, and at the age of seven changed her name and pronouns after requesting this for about a year.

But I cannot stress enough that everyone who knows Hannah, including her GP, Camhs and social work, believe she needs puberty blockers and that the NHS should be providing this care.

And not forgetting being a girl has nothing to do with being female. According to their own logic. So why aren't these people being called terfs for insisting girls can't be male?

I could, but won't, attach a photo of my boy aged about 4 in his hand-me-down flouncy dress under his alter ego of Chloe. 'Chloe' made regular appearances in our house for years. Chloe was considerably more girly than his actual sister.

He also believed all nurses to be female and all doctors male, despite only ever seeing female doctors in real life and knowing that his favourite uncle was a nurse. Small kids have a weird outlook on life.

If only Libby could find someone to put the pro biology side of the case to her. Or speak of their experiences with 'transition '. Like Ritchie Herron , Kiera Bell or some of the 8k people on r/detrans. Of course that was banned but I heard it was reinstated?

I used to read Libby Brooks years ago and enjoyed her pieces. But this seems quite irresponsible.

Tbf, my fil had maggots applied to a wound that wouldn't heal via the NHS a few years ago...!!

I was going to post this, but it infuriated me too much.
Nauseatingly manipulative headlines

Ditto my aunt. She eats so much sugar, and is so depleted in essential nutrients that as a result the wound had no chance of healing.
it was horrific I felt sorry for the maggots.