Thousands of vulnerable children who are questioning their gender identity are being let down by the NHS offering unproven treatments and the ‘toxicity’ of the transgender debate, breakthrough reveals This was revealed in the report.
The UK’s only NHS Gender Identity Development Service has found that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which masculinize or feminize people’s appearance, have a “significantly weak effect” on improving young people’s well-being and potentially harming their health. Dr. Hilary Kass said it was used despite “evidence.”
Ms Cass, a leading consultant pediatrician, said her research findings were not aimed at undermining the legitimacy of transgender identity or challenging people’s right to transition, but rather on gender-related The aim is to improve care for the rapidly increasing number of children and young people suffering from these problems. .
But she argues that the polarized public debate and opposing sides “pointing to research to justify their positions, regardless of the quality of the research,” makes it difficult to provide this accommodation. He said it has become even more difficult.
“There are few other medical fields where professionals are so afraid to publicly discuss their opinions, where people are vilified on social media, and where slander leads to the worst acts of bullying. This has to stop. not.”
NHS England commissioned her inquiry in 2020 amid growing concerns about the care provided by Tavistock and Portman NHS Mental Health Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (Gids). From 2009 to 2020, she treated approximately 9,000 children and young people with an average age of 14 years at the time of referral.
Her research has already led the UK NHS to shut down Gid, ban puberty blockers and introduce a new ‘holistic’ system in which under-18s with confusion about their gender identity receive regular psychological support rather than medical intervention. ” leading to a switch to a care model.
“For most young people, the best way to deal with gender-related distress is not in a medical setting. For young people who are clinically in need of a health care pathway, it is important to address broader mental health and psychosocial challenges. Providing a health care pathway is not enough without addressing it,” said Mr Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. .
The report states that all such young people should be screened to detect neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, and that many of those seeking help for their gender identity It also recommends that mental health be evaluated, as many suffer from ADHD, anxiety, and depression. for example.
Some transgender adults “live positive, successful lives and feel empowered by their decision to transition,” Cass said. But, she added, “I have spoken to people who have de-transitioned, some of whom deeply regret their previous decisions.”
“While some young people may feel the need to hasten their transition, those looking at their younger selves often advise them to slow down,” the report says.
“Some young people told us they wished they had known at a younger age that there were more ways to become transgender than just a medical binary transition. There were people,” Kass told the Guardian.
In her report, she describes how the Tavistock Trust began prescribing puberty suppressants more widely in 2014, despite a lack of evidence that they were effective. It provides an overview of Taka.
In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Kass said children who question their gender are being “let down” by the NHS and medical professionals, and there is “disastrous” uncertainty about what treatments will work. He said there was a lack of evidence.
“One of the things that’s disappointing them is that the debate has become so toxic that people are now afraid to work in this area.
“They passed because the majority of people have been so afraid because of the lack of guidance, the lack of research, and the polarization of this situation. [patients] Head straight to Giz. ”
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Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Today’s report should mark a turning point for NHS gender identity services. Children’s healthcare should always be based on evidence and the welfare of the child, and free from culture wars. Clinicians and parents alike want the best for children during this critical developmental period, and this report provides an evidence-driven framework to achieve that.”
Sally Baxendale, professor of clinical neuropsychology at University College London, said the Cass report “confirms the treatment that NHS clinicians have been prescribing to children with gender distress for more than a decade. , revealed an alarming lack of evidence.”
“These treatments have caused significant harm to some of the most vulnerable children in our society.
“Exceptionalism often lies at the heart of medical scandals when services become corrupt and begin to operate outside the normal scope of clinical practice.”
However, Dr Aidan Kelly, a clinical psychologist specializing in gender who left Tavistock in 2021, said the NHS would be able to provide a range of new models of care to run the eight clinics which will offer a wider range of new care models. He said that he is having difficulty recruiting abundant human resources.
“Gids wasn’t perfect, but it had a service with history and expertise. There were things that needed to change, but it made sense to me to at least retain the knowledge I’d gained over time.” “Yes,” he said.
He disputed many of Kass’s findings, saying a recent German study found puberty blockers to be safe and effective. He added that NHS England’s switch to a completely different way of dealing with young people who are confused about their gender identity has put England “out of step with the rest of the world”. .
In her report, Cass said that six out of seven adult gender specialist services in the NHS in England, at her request, obtained and analyzed health outcomes for people treated for gender dysphoria. The University of York’s attempt to do so was “thwarted”. Improve future care.
This refusal to cooperate was “coordinated,” she told the Guardian. “It seemed to me to be driven by ideology.” The report found that clinicians who treat people with gender-related distress are deeply divided about the best way to do so. Inside she admits:
We also document how Gids has experienced both an explosion in demand for its services since 2010 and a significant increase in the number of women registering births due to a reversal in referral patterns.
Cass said “online influencers” were playing a key role in stirring up confusion among young people about their gender identity and what they needed to do to change it.
“I haven’t done any comprehensive research, but certainly when I was told about certain influencers, I followed some of them. Some of them give very biased information.
“And some of them [young people] I was told that my parents didn’t understand, so I needed to actively separate myself from them or distance myself from them. All the evidence shows that family support is really key to people’s well-being. So there were really dangerous effects going on,” she said.
Rishi Sunak said: “We have no idea what the long-term impact of medical and social transition will be on them, so we need to be very careful.”
“We acted swiftly on Dr Cass’s interim report and made changes to schools and the NHS, providing comprehensive guidance to schools and discontinuing the routine use of puberty blockers. We will ensure that appropriate measures are taken to protect young people.”
