Detransition Pathway UK - kudos to Michael Kerr

[oviraptor21]

Hope the link works: https://www.thetimes.com/article/a16848cc-b57a-4608-9309-a6130931480b?shareToken=f62b7880082a36c118d5c495158d4279

Michael Kerr, a detransitioner, is setting up a support service for detansitioners. This was something recommended in the Cass Report but, no surprise, hasn't happened on the NHS yet.

Good for him.
It's all so awful - and of course most of it avoidable if society hadn't allowed queer theorists / trans lobbyists to influence medical "care".

Good for him. Gender clinics don't seem to have the slightest interest if someone shows regret.

Interesting, I wonder if this will do better than The Detransition Advocacy Network which was founded a few years ago to grandiose headlines boasting it was going to support hundreds of people, 2 years later was utterly defunked, and the creator (who it turned out had never even medically transitioned) admitted she had been contacted by only 12 people, then vanished with no comment on what had happened to all the crowdfunded money.

There are some great comments under that article. Good to see so much support for him. Let's hope it's a positive addition to the limited support fro detransitioners.

I am pleased to see detransitioners both raising the profile of their stories, and the harms done to them, and offering support for each other. I'm not clear on what his pathway will offer though, and whether it might form a model for NHS services.

For the NHS, there was a recent consultation on detransition pathways - IIRC it closed around New Year. Detransition also referenced in the Levy Review. So I think it is harsh to have expected a fully fledged service to be in place by now. Particularly as the 'pathway' is not clear - every detransition case is so individual and reasons for detransition can vary a lot, so any kind of pathway (or psych/medical support) would need to be extremely flexible and individualised - and how to scale that, and where to host it... I don't think it is simple.

It also puts the NHS is a weird position of offering a treatment that they know some patients will then require other NHS services to reverse (or support the harms from). I can't think of any equivalent medical services. That will be an interesting circle to square.

Anyway, good luck to the gentleman in the article and I hope whatever he is planning is helpful and can provide some insights as to what services detransitioners most benefit from.

And not telling anyone that it had folded so that anyone giving regular donations weren’t aware.

But yes I’m pleased Michael is doing this. Very over due. And with coverage in the Times and Nick, he’s got good backing and links to make it a success.

Well done Michael. He is Geh Michael on TikTok and does some good terfing.

Mr Menno did a great interview with Michael. Two hours long, so I wasn't sure that I would watch all of it, but I became engrossed. (Though I did break it down into more than one session.)

This network is not the same as the one that collapsed?

Yes - good points about squaring a rather mishapen circle.
I hope it doesn't get swept under the carpet though - it was a clear recommendation and there needs to be an informed and consistent approach which takes into account the many challenges detransitioners face. Hopefully Detransition Pathway will be consulted.

Thanks for the link to the interview @WiseWomanOfPutney - I will watch that tomorrow.

From a medical point of view there are some parallels - being in ITU is increasingly recognised as a very traumatic experience, specifically for those with prolonged or complex admissions. There is some (limited) support with 'debriefing' after discharge from hospital in some places. Similarly talking through a difficult childbirth experience with healthcare professionals- also very limited services. People living with harm from medical procedures / drug side effects is incredibly common & in many case doesn't reflect medical negligence - I'm not commenting on gender transition here, but on common scenarios like any surgery - there is always a complication rate. Drug side effects also are
very common - typically short lived but can (rarely but not that rarely) be permanent. So there are parallels & typically care in these scenarios doesn't have to a set pathway (as the circumstances are so varied) & is patchy.

No different name

Yes, that’s a good video, and Michael is a really engaging guy.

What staggers me is the NHS had two appointments with a very young man who'd been raped in a toilet and disassociated from his body...

And they went "no need for any further investigation, here's cross sex hormones."

Not "you need counselling following your rape," just straight to transing the gay away.

Poor Michael. That's appalling.

Yes, that was appallingly negligent.

More power to Michael.

Yes, I did think of harm-mitigation measures taken after essential (usually life-saving) treatment. Also treatment of radiation-induced damage from cancer treatment. But as far as I can think, all treatments are done on a risk-benefit basis, with (hopefully) informed consent and NICE makes a (more-or-less) evidence-based calculation on the benefits of offering the treatment to the population. And that's the difference with gender isn't it? There has been no risk-benefit calculation, NICE have never issued an evidence review and there is no evidence that MAF hormone (to use NHS's welcome new terminology) are essential or life-saving, and the condition that are supposed to treat ('gender incongruence') is not even a pathology, according to the NHS itself.

A better parallel might be cosmetic breast enhancement and the reversal of the procedure when no longer wanted. Neither of which are available on the NHS. However, the NHS does treat complications of breast enhancement (e.g. ruptured implants) so if we use this parallel, the NHS should decommission gender clinics, but have funded detransition/complications pathways.