NHS Condemned by Professional Transgender Healthcare Organisations
Yesterday, every professional transgender healthcare organisation released a joint statement which roundly condemned the removal of treatment using hormone suppressants (often known as puberty blockers) for gender dysphoric young people by the NHS Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).
GIDS opted to fully remove this treatment option following the farcical Kiera Bell legal case, despite it not actually being a requirement of the judgement. That GIDS did so with such rapidity and lack of concern for those young people under it’s remit shows the service is not fit for purpose, a claim that service users have been making for a number of years.
The full statement can be found here: www.wpath.org/policies
The statement was published by World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and issued jointly with:
European Association for Transgender Health (EPATH)
United States Professional Association for Transgender health (USPATH)
Asian Association for Transgender Health (AsiaPATH)
Canadian Association for Transgender Health (CPATH)
Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH)
Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA)
The statement itself highlights how & why Hormone Suppressants are beneficial in treatment for gender diverse young people:
“We have a grave concern that the High Court has overlooked not only the immediate positive effects
of puberty suppression, which has been demonstrated to result in decreased psychological suffering
and a healthier adolescent development, but also the lifelong benefits of having a physical
appearance which is congruent with one’s gender identity. Withholding such treatment until
adolescents are 16 years old means they will experience complete puberty incongruent with their
gender identity, which has potential life-long harmful consequences such as stigmatization, personal
physical discomfort, difficulty with sexual function and social integration. ”
And ends with the following:
“WPATH, EPATH, USPATH, AsiaPATH, CPATH, AusPATH, and PATHA recommend that capacity to
consent is evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the treating clinician and not by a court of law. We
do not agree that transgender healthcare is so different in kind to that provided to cisgender people
as to warrant separate legal provision. We consider puberty blocking treatment and treatment with
gender affirming hormones as two separate treatment steps each requiring informed consent at the
time such treatment is to be started.
We support the provision of healthcare to gender diverse people in a timely manner such that they
can live their best lives. We are gravely concerned that the ruling will have a significantly adverse
impact upon gender diverse youth and their families by imposing barriers to care that are costly,
needlessly intimidating, and inherently discriminatory. ”
Trans healthcare in the UK is a complete shambles, and not only for young people - healthcare for adults is only marginally better, and often uses the same diagnostic approach as GIDS - which is adversarial, to put it mildly.
Transgender Healthcare is both defined and decided by cisgender people, who often do not understand us at all, and often refuse to listen to us at all.
Until the last few years this also included WPATH, whose approach was deeply problematic and viewed with suspicion by most trans people. These organisations are still largely run and policies made by cisgender medical professionals, and as such are extremely conservative in their treatment guidance which is based in actual science, as opposed to studies of sheep.
For the NHS to be condemned in this way is unprecedented, and shows just how backwards and barbaric trans related healthcare in the UK actually is.