Why the NHS puberty blocker trial is appalling

[Soontobe60]

Stella O’Malley from Genspect telling it like it is - that a state endorsed trial of puberty blockers for gender dysphoric children should NOT go ahead.
the NHS are not walking into this nightmare blindly - there are enough experts out there telling them what will happen happen to these children if they’re given these life changing drugs.
https://x.com/genspect/status/1989896741358113127?s=61&t=gKvvk-rWmOlYFGMZN8QVvQ

Top story in the Times online:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/fab234e1-d2d3-416d-8737-c4245f0378e7?shareToken=666b19166dc4504fcfc7e40d4b3fcaed

Has anyone who has read the details of this trial seen if there will be a control group? I read that part of the group will receive drugs for two years and part for one year to assess the impact of being on the drugs for a longer period of time. .. is there a 'no drugs' group?

Horrifying.

Absolutely criminal wtf are they thinking?

Why is the gov allowing this

Age 10 to 15. What on earth are adults thinking?

I too have woken up to this thinking WTAF are they doing. This is horrific

any child not on the trial is the control i suppose as children will know exactly if it’s working or not.

But there would surely need to be records of them also, and their outcomes …?

Dies anyone have the link to the recent discussion that was recorded with dr David bell and others about this? I never watched it

According to the Times article there is a no drug group but I can't tell from it if they know they don't get the drug or if they are injected with a placebo.

Who will be funding this? I couldnt see that level of detail in the bbc article. I was shocked when I saw it this morning.

Checking in. I feel such helpless anger at this. And real grief at how many lives are going to be actively and willfully ruined.

NIHR are funding this.
Has anyone got a link to the protocol?

It's horrific to think that an ethics committee has approved this - they are experimenting on mentally ill children.

If this was trial in monkeys there would be a march on parliament, but human children - fine apparently.

Being discussed on Radio 4 now.

Same

Why are we going backwards? It’s unconscionable

Oh. It seems that a lot of weight is going to be giving to young people's own accounts of how beneficial they find being on puberty blockers to be.

It’s horrifying. And this paragraph from The Times really lands the life-changing nature of the risks compared with the so-called benefits There are other treatments for anxiety and depression. As for gender identity – could we have some scientific evidence that actually exists before we start using children as medical Guinea pigs?

Simonoff said the trial would assess three main potential risks and harms of puberty blockers: decreased bone strength, long-term damage to fertility and “the impact on brain development and brain function”. Potential benefits include reducing anxiety and depression, and “better alignment between body features and long-term identity”.

There's no control group in a true sense of the world. Half the participants will have a one year delay before having their normal human development halted.

Seems like an arbitrary decision- no effort to follow up previously treated children/adults being made which speaks volumes.

I'm 52 and went to school with a girl (not the UK) who was 6 foot by the time she was 13-ish I guess. I well recall her telling us she had had her GP try and persuade her parents to give her medication to stop it and they were furious about it. Mainly because some random male GP decided that being tall for a woman was a bad thing. It stuck in my head because when I turned 16 MY male GP told me at some unrelated medical appointment that I was of the age I could get a nose job. Up until then I did not know there was a problem with my nose. I was very firm about not having one (though my mother was also keen) and had taken my school friend as a motivation for standing my ground.

Anyway, that is probably a pointless comment to post, but I am just musing.

That was Professor Emily Simonoff, study leader and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at King's College London on the radio.

How can this trial assess long term impact on fertility? It's far too short a time period and highly unlikely any participants will be trying to conceive in their teens. Will they be following them up for the next 20 years?

Nothing in the media about stunting penis development or female incontinence.

Utterly horrified that this has passed ethics and will be recruiting- and that is BEFORE any longitudinal studies. I felt certain that this could never get ethics approval.

Who’s the trial sponsor?

Thank you @LikeAHandleInTheWind
According to their website “The NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research.”
Wow.

I asked chat gpt for long term animal data and there appears to be no studies suppressing puberty as early or for as long as is proposed in this human study. That in itself is appalling - approving a study in human children that hasn't been at least done in mice is horrific.

Unbelievably awful. Openly experimenting on children in the false belief that sex change is possible.
This also raises the other problem that few ethical medics would ever want to be involved in an unethical trial this - which then leaves children in the hands of the dangerous trans zealots.

I would very much like to know what Dr Cass thinks about the trial.