Paediatricians are to investigate the controversial drugs used to halt puberty in children who want to change sex, it was reported in late July.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health asked its ethics and law advisory committee to look at the ethics surrounding the rapid increase in the use of hormone blockers to treat under 16s. The drugs are currently only licensed for use in children under this age who start puberty early, before the age of nine, not for children who present as having ‘gender dysphoria’.
This investigation comes after the NHS clinic specialising in gender identity, The Tavistock and Portman Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), was criticised for ignoring its own study on the puberty blockers. The full results were not released, and parents at the clinic were not fully informed about the risks associated with the drugs that other international studies had revealed.
The NHS Health Research Authority (HRA) is investigating, after the BBC’s Newsnight programme informed them about the study’s findings. The HRA said it was unaware of the information, despite asking GIDS for annual updates.
Self-harm increases
The report showed ‘a significant increase’ in the number of adolescents who said they ‘deliberately try to hurt or kill themselves’. Personal testimony reported in The Times newspaper in July included the claim that a child was not told about the low moods and other side effects of the drugs given to them. A decrease in bone density led to the person breaking four bones, and the parent reported that her child became more introverted and body conscious saying the blockers ‘contributed more to the self-image problems that were already there’. Her child said: ‘The worst part was probably the depression. There were moments when I wanted everything to stop.’ Trans propaganda groups such as Mermaids cite suicide as a reason for embracing trans ideology. The facts don’t appear to support this view.
Earlier in July, former employee Dr Kirsty Entwistle wrote an open letter to the Director of GIDS, Dr Polly Carmichael, outlining her concerns about the way the clinic was being run. Similar comments made to The Guardian newspaper several years previously were ignored as trans ideology was gaining unchallenged support. The Times however had investigated the ethical concerns of clinicians in April 2019.
Entwistle said staff at the clinic were rushing to affirm patients’ gender confusion without proper investigation, for fear of being labelled transphobic. They felt unable to challenge a child’s self-diagnosed transgender identity due to ‘unspoken rules’ at the clinic. Suggesting one explore early adverse experiences in a child’s life ‘run the risk of [you] being called transphobic.’
She said: ‘In my Clinical Psychology training and in other services the loss of or abandonment by a parent would be something to be explored and the impact understood, but I felt that at GIDS this factor was often minimised or dismissed. I read many referrals of children who have been sexually abused and many children have witnessed and/or been subjected to domestic violence.’
Dr Entwistle, a clinical psychologist, also said: ‘GIDS clinicians tell children and families that puberty blockers/hormone blocks are ‘fully reversible’, but the reality is that no one knows what the impacts are on children’s brains, so how is it possible to make this claim?’
Detransitioning
She highlighted cases in America of children regretting transitioning after it was presented as the only option. ‘Since leaving GIDS I have been learning about organisations and academics who present a more critical approach to gender identity and the medical pathway for children. I have also seen accounts of young people who no longer identify as transgender, even after medical interventions, and are now distressed about having been put on the medical pathway.’
