I could weep with relief. Scotland's gender medicine experts BACK the Cass review.

[GargoylesofBeelzebub]

www.holyrood.com/news/view,trans-healthcare-experts-reject-call-to-suspend-cass-review-implementation

Their comments are empathetic and sane. What a huge relief.

Thank goodness for that. A rare show of sanity in Scotland

But it says 'The council of the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to reject the findings of the review, which recommended a pause on prescriptions of hormones for young people reporting gender identity issues.'

Thank fuck.

'Appearing before MSPs today, key NHS Scotland medics defended the Cass Review’s methodology and said they did not agree that prescriptions should resume now.
Rhoda MacLeod, head of adult services at the specialist Sandyford Sexual Health Service run by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), said: “The BMA are not a clinical organisation. They're a staff-side organisation and they're entitled to have their own views and perspectives on it, but obviously we would adhere to what the clinical perspective is, and that's what we're doing.”
Critics have dismissed the methodology used by paediatrian Dr Hilary Cass and disputed the findings. However, NHS Lothian medical director Tracey Gillies said she would “place a level of reliance” on the work, which has been appraised by a University of York team which has a “strong track record in looking at evidence, understanding how that evidence has been gathered, and then bringing a perspective to that that has the sort of scientific basis that we would expect to see in any other area of clinical practice”.

Nice to see grown ups finally creeping out of the shadows now that the lunatic fringe is losing its grip.

But it says 'The council of the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to reject the findings of the review, which recommended a pause on prescriptions of hormones for young people reporting gender identity issues.'

Read it again. Scotland's gender experts do NOT agree with the BMA.

“Not everybody that is gender questioning needs an NHS service; I feel very strongly about that. There's lots of people who are gender questioning out there and they are just gender questioning, they don't necessarily need an NHS service. It depends about what else is going on for them and what their level of distress is, and how they're managing to cope and how they're managing to function and how are they best supported.”

Boom.

Rhoda Macleod, Sandyford.

There is is in black and white what we have been shouting for years. Thank fuck.

I’m watching my way through the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee meeting now and it’s fascinating to hear such a change in the MSPs and Clinicians since May’s meeting. It feels much more positive and curious about causation, as well as willing to point out service and treatment flaws, than it was in the past.

https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/health-social-care-and-sport-committee-september-17-2024

@@GargoylesofBeelzebub Ok, Im half asleep

It's like the Cass review has broken the spell.

Such welcome news but I hope they all reflect on the shit show of terrible decisions they’ve made over several years. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Yes. Using 'gender questioning' rather than 'trans' is a fundamental shift.

A lot may depend on

• whether the BMA persists with the Task & Finish group to critique Cass (see good piece in Lancet)
• activity of NHS England's CYP Gender Dysphoria Research Oversight Board and the upcoming trial.

www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/gender-dysphoria-clinical-programme/implementing-advice-from-the-cass-review/cyp-gender-dysphoria-research-oversight-board

I just noticed this article in the Telegraph, I hope this thread is an okay place to leave it

https://archive.ph/qgb6x bypass paywall

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/17/puberty-blockers-transgender-children-nhs-scotland/

It seems to me the Doctors outsourced their thinking to the rainbow brigade with no medical training but lots of belief. I wonder how many are now anxiously hoping they can outsource any malign results and the resulting comeback. I hope they all are, I hope it keeps them awake at night and makes everything taste of ashes.

And this in the Times from a couple of days ago

https://archive.ph/skFhg paywall bypass

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/gender-clinic-referrals-surge-before-policy-change-deadline-nk56t5w2r

I'm supposed to be respectful, so I'll stop here.

Thank you for adding this.

Tracy Gillies, the medical director at NHS Lothian, said it was “really very difficult to articulate” why any clinician would now prescribe drugs to suppress puberty to treat gender issues, after a lack of reliable evidence for safety or effectiveness was <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/qgb6x/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/10/under-25s-trans-care-must-be-slower-says-cass-report/" rel="nofollow" target="blank">highlighted by the Cass Reviewew.*

That is quite a quote from Tracy assuming it has been given in context.

Agreed.
Presumably the revelations about the toxic influence that Mermaids, Gendered Intelligence, Stonewall and numerous other trans lobbyists have had on child healthcare has gone some way to wake up medics. The realisation that trans activists were able to persuade / bully the NHS to abandon evidence based medical treatment for mentally vulnerable children will have been shocking for ethical medics and they're now scrambling to reverse ferret / finally speak out.

“really very difficult to articulate” why any clinician would now prescribe drugs to suppress puberty to treat gender issues, after a lack of reliable evidence for safety or effectiveness was <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/qgb6x/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/10/under-25s-trans-care-must-be-slower-says-cass-report/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">highlighted by the Cass Review is a giant heads-up to prescribers that they can expect to be having some very intense discussions with their indemnity orgs if they continue prescribing and subsequently get sued or put before a professional conduct committee.

Tracy Gillies is good. A few years ago she dealt with concerned GPs who were being pressured by GenderGP to undertake shared care.

They do make the point that the BMA is a 'staff-side organisation', not an organisation of clinicians/doctors. The BMA should not be getting involved.

There is also this article in the Times today:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/38067049-a3a0-47b2-995c-710ed5ed6dac?shareToken=16d77147b098b106a088f98973261280

Thanks for that info Rethinking.

I wonder why they trial will involve both blockers and psychosocial support - isn’t the trial trying to determine which of these methods is most effective? Would giving both treatments to all the children involved make for unclear results and an inability to attribute positives/negatives to a particular intervention?

Yes. I thought (might be wrong, need to look up) that during the original Dutch protocol trials, the children were also receiving psychological support- which someone had pointed out as another difference to the current cohorts (alongside being in stable family relationships/no comorbidities).

Times piece is decent:

Asked about when children wanting to switch gender in Scotland would be able to join NHS England’s research trial of puberty blocking medicines, MacLeod said it could be next year. She agreed with MSPs that young people who were hoping to start taking puberty suppressing drugs or sex hormones such as testosterone, had struggled with the block on issuing new prescriptions.

archived version: https://archive.is/x5a5z

I share the concerns about the trial protocol. They need to publish this and the outcomes for transparency. It's scheduled for publication fairly soon. I've no insight into the ethics discussion and when any approval of that is due.

I've seen clinicians express the hope that they'll be able to put most of their patients through for the trial. We need clarity as to the participant numbers, inclusion and exclusion criteria, primary outcomes, and whether they will be managed locally.

The BMA is just a trade union. They did not put this policy out for members to vote on, and it was just decided on by a small number of people. There are moves afoot to contest this decision.