Eighteen years ago, Susan Evans blew the whistle on the NHS’s only gender identity service for young people at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.
Alarm bells had started ringing for the nurse when she realised colleagues had referred a distressed 16-year-old boy who thought of himself as female for hormone treatment after only four appointments.
She saw a service that was under “tremendous pressure” from trans campaign groups such as Mermaids and she was alienated by other staff members for questioning the medicalisation of young people.
Her complaints prompted an internal inquiry in 2004, but nothing changed, Ms Evans said, and felt she had no option but to walk away for her own mental health.
In the 18 years that followed, as more than 20,000 children were referred, history repeated itself.
We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.
A further concern is that adolescent sex hormone surges may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function (i.e. maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short-, medium- or longer-term impact of puberty blockers on neurocognitive development.
Source: The Cass Review. (emphasis added)
Kirkup asks in his article:
This all raises many grim questions. Here are just two. Given the lack of evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers and the volume of concerns raised about their use, why has it taken so long for the uncertainties and risks around their use to be officially recognised? And is there any other context in which the responsible authorities – medical, governmental and political – would have been so slow to intervene over such scandalous disregard for the welfare of children?
Unfortunately, if the issue is about human sexuality or gender, people today treat the issue with kid-gloves. Many have also been intimidated into silence by the Gender-Ideology-Bullies out there. Afraid of being called a bigot. Or having their career derailed (a real fear).
The employment tribunal victories of @MForstater & @BluskyeAllison have strengthened my resolve to stay in politics & to see off the bullies who’ve tried to silence me. I am so grateful to them & their supporters. https://t.co/zA7f7HgVOl
I want a full inquiry into the 232 children from Ireland that were sent here by the @HSELive. Questions need answering @rodericogorman I raised this in the Seanad, ignored. pic.twitter.com/kHTYEG8zSZ
— Senator Sharon Keogan (@SenatorKeogan) July 28, 2022
There will of course be political opportunists. There always are. But the full weight of investigative journalism had better get cranked up on this one.
Seriously. If this isn't the time for a no-holds barred journalistic dive into the totally amoral, ideologically bonkers racket that is Mermaids, I don't know what is. They held the Tavistock ransom for years. They are still going. They are crazy. Children's bodies are at stake. https://t.co/nl3MxprPT3
