Kiera has an op ed at the end of yesterday’s Telegraph article. Copying here:
A conveyor belt to lifelong harm
By Keira Bell
In 2020 I became a claimant in a Judicial Review against The Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) to challenge the idea that under-18s could provide informed consent for puberty blockers. The High Court ruled that it was highly unlikely for a child aged 13 or under to provide informed consent, it was doubtful that 14 and 15-year-olds could, and that those over 16 should be referred to the courts if there is any doubt about their capacity to consent.
Despite this ruling being overturned in the Court of Appeal on a point of law, this process exposed the insanity that was taking place not only at The Tavistock but across the Western world.
Now, the nation is about to commence hundreds of under-16s on a puberty blocker trial. They claim this is to gain the evidence to inform clinical practice. However, I and many others believe this to be a deeply unethical, disgusting experiment on the children of this nation.
A “trial” of puberty blockers has already been conducted. In 2011, GIDS and University College London Hospitals (UCLH) studied 44 children between 12 and 15 over three years – the “early intervention study”. They kept the findings in the dark until the 2020 court proceedings forced them to reveal this information.
What was revealed was that – at best – the blockers did nothing to improve children’s mental health.
For some, it worsened. I am a testament to this. It sent me into a menopause-like state: hot flushes, brain fog, worsened depression, anxiety and my bone density drastically decreased. It did not provide a “pause” to think and reflect like these doctors claim.
In fact, I became more desperate to start cross-sex hormones (testosterone) and escape the compounded hell I was experiencing, which I did a year later. I also went ahead with a double-mastectomy at age 20. I am included in the statistic of 98 per cent of children who proceed further down the pathway once they are initiated on puberty blockers.
I suffered at the age of 16 and I can only imagine the level of physiological damage that these children – who are younger than I was – will experience if this trial goes ahead. It is rightly described as a conveyor belt that will undoubtedly lead to infertility and lack of sexual function, to name only a couple.
A child cannot fully understand these effects, let alone those that are unknown. Puberty is the antidote to gender dysphoria for 85 per cent of children, who reconcile with their sex when they are left alone. Many of these children have mental health comorbidities, are autistic and/or same-sex attracted. They deserve holistic treatment and to lead happy, fulfilling lives. Not to be made life-long medical patients, coupled with a life of confusion and disorientation.
Puberty does not happen in a vacuum. It is not some magical process isolated from the rest of the body. Neil Evans’s trial on sheep revealed that memory and cognition was impaired from puberty blockers and their cognition did not recover once ceased.
UCLH told me they were reversible when I signed the form. The ideologically captured NHS itself lied on its guidance and stated these drugs are reversible until the 2020 ruling forced them to reflect the facts – we don’t know.
Yes, puberty blockers are prescribed for precocious puberty – a developmental abnormality. They are also used to chemically castrate adult sex offenders. It is inexcusable to inject this substance into vulnerable children who are experiencing a complex psychological issue, when they are likely to recover without it.
The horrifying concept of providing puberty blockers to children was originally created and tailored for boys, where this process was to allow them to ‘pass’ as a woman later in life. This, of course ignoring all the negative, life-altering effects.
However, most patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria for the past 10-plus years have been female, where puberty blockers are unnecessary to “pass” as men. Not only is the prospect of a trial negatively life-altering, but it lacks any superficial benefits.
Why are we not utilising the evidence we already have? Did those of us who already had this treatment do it in vain?
Puberty is rough for everyone, but it is necessary.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/8928696e3bd3fac5