Five members of staff from Britain’s only NHS gender clinic for children have quit
over fears children as young as 3 years-old are going through unnecessary gender reassignment treatment.
All five former staff members were part of the team deciding if youngsters should be given hormone blockers to stop their development before puberty.
Clinicians from the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in the UK warn that the clinic in Britain is risking a “live experiment” by sending hundreds of children for life-changing medical intervention without sufficient evidence of its long-term effects.
It was feared some gay children struggling with their sexual identity are being incorrectly diagnosed as trans-gender.
Specialists also worried that some of the youngsters were being referred and pressured into having gender change treatment after suffering homophobic bullying.
The patients then take a course of cross-sex hormones at the age of 16 depending on whether they want to develop as male or female.
At least 18 staff members have reportedly quit the controversial clinic over the past three years, citing fears not enough checks are being done to correctly diagnose child patients.
One of the five whistle blowers even said the only reason many stayed in their post was to prevent more children from having the treatment.
Referrals to the clinic risen in recent years, with 94 in 2010, rising to 2,519 by last year, with the youngest patient aged just 3 years old?
Experts fear the treatments are being given without exploring the underlying reason for the children’s confusion over their sexuality.
An Oxford professor said the treatments were ‘unregulated live experiments on children’ with some diagnosis not supported by any evidence.
It is only in recent years that the number of young people attending specialist services worldwide has dramatically increased.
Specialist services worldwide are actively engaged in research to better understand the characteristics and needs of young people attending specialist services.
Doctors at the gender identity clinic warned young patients could be exposed to ‘long-term damage’ due to lobby groups and ‘pushy parents’.
Some children ‘take up a trans identity as a solution’ to ‘multiple problems such as historic (sexual) child abuse in the family, bereavement, homophobia, and a very significant incidence of autism spectrum disorder’.
Many children questioning their identity may have ‘learn through on-line resources [or] coaching from from parents or peers exactly what to say in order to get the results they want’.
Psychoanalyst and former governor of the clinic, Dr Marcus Evans, resigned in over concerns clinicians were looking for ‘quick solutions’ by offering gender reassignment.
News Punch / ABC Flash Point Medical News 2019.
