>#Children buying puberty blockers could be referred to police or social services
>__NHS proposals would see local authorities alerted when young people obtain hormone therapies on the private market__
>By Gabriella Swerling,
>SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR
>18 October 2022 • 5:50pm
>Children who buy puberty blockers could be referred to police or social services under new NHS proposals for treating young transgender patients, leaked plans suggest.
>NHS England drafted new guidelines for treating trans children, which would see local authorities alerted in cases where young people obtain hormone therapies or puberty blockers on the private market.
>The guidelines, which have not been made public, are part of a wide-ranging review of the treatment of young transgender people seeking care under the NHS.
>Children wishing to transition can currently do so with medical intervention, a practice which has been criticised by some doctors as well as families. However, the years-long wait for treatment has prompted some young people to seek medication through unregulated online pharmacies, or privately.
>According to the document, seen by Reuters, NHS professionals can advise a patient’s primary care doctor to instigate “safeguarding protocols” if they decide they should not be taking hormones or puberty blockers obtained privately.
>__NHS warning over buying drugs online__
>It does not elaborate on what these “safeguarding protocols” could entail. However, under NHS protocols, “safeguarding teams” are made up of representatives of the police, medical and social services professionals who are responsible for ensuring a child’s safety and wellbeing.
>The NHS previously “strongly discouraged” people from purchasing medication to change gender online, from providers that are not regulated within the UK.
>Dr Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, said in a statement last week: “No one should be purchasing illegal, unknown and potentially life-threatening drugs online.”
>Last year the Court of Appeal ruled that children under 16 would be allowed to take puberty blockers without parental consent.
>The court overturned a previous judgement which deemed under-16s unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent to be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs.
>Medical experts had told the court that taking puberty blockers could have “unknown and life-changing consequences” for children and impact their fertility.
>The new proposals, according to Reuters, would give the NHS far stricter oversight of young people wishing to change gender and say there is an “urgent need” to establish new services for transgender youth “as quickly as possible”.
>Other changes in the draft guidelines are said to include: allowing only NHS professionals to refer young people for gender care, having clinics staffed with teams endowed with wider professional experience, and requiring meetings between referring staff and a clinic to establish if gender clinics are the best option for treatment.
>__Only gender care clinic for children being dissolved__
>The NHS is dissolving the only gender care clinic for children in England, the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), at the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust from spring 2023. It was shut down after being criticised in an interim report by Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people.
>In July, NHS England said it intended to build a “more resilient service” by expanding regional provision, and would establish two services led by specialist children’s hospitals in London and north-west England, and which would operate under the new guidelines.
>According to NHS data, referrals to the clinic rose to more than 5,000 patients in the most recent financial year from 210 a decade ago. The average waiting time to see gender care professionals is now around three years.
>A spokesperson for NHS England declined to comment on the draft guidelines. It has previously said it will share its preliminary guidelines to allow the public to review and give feedback.
>The Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust did not respond to request for comment.
>Cleo Madeleine, a spokesperson for Gendered Intelligence, a national transgender-led charity which provides training, support and policy advice, said the charity did not want to comment directly on the draft document.
>However, she told Reuters that any new guidelines must avoid a “rehash” of the current system, which has “so many administrative barriers and capacity issues that it became unsustainable”.
I might be in the minority here but why the fuck would a child be getting puberty blockers. They absolutely not at an age to be making these decisions.
[deleted]
The precedent that moves like this set, of course, is that minors (under 18, not 16) are not able to consent to medical procedures, including of course, abortion. The entire push behind ‘trans children’ – a phrase which generally refers to teens anyway, deliberately used to imply tiny kids – being controlled is funded and pushed by anti-abortion groups, often evangelical and American in origin.
They won’t stop at this if they get their way.
> Dr Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, said in a statement last week: “No one should be purchasing illegal, unknown and potentially life-threatening drugs online.”
This seems to be the main take home message. Fuck knows what those kids are swallowing, it could be anything.
So I assume the kids using illegally purchased blockers will no longer tell their doctors they are doing so.
Which would mean this achieving exactly the opposite of its supposed aim.
Children should not be buying these, however they would not be tempted to if access to gender identity clinics was quicker and easier. Children questioning their gender deserve access to the necessary services as soon as possible to help them navigate their feelings and potential treatment options. The fact that we have waiting lists stretching on for years for the initial consultation is why some children are turning to desperate measures such as this.
Self medication with online bought products should absolutely be discouraged. We’ve seen it with synthetic highs, diet pills, erection pills and anti-depressants. They’re cut with the cheapest things that can be found and can be little more than poison. Then when they’re admitted to hospital the doctors have no idea what they’ve taken making treating them much more difficult.
Well maybe they wouldn’t need to do so if the wait times werent so fucking shite. 6 years to even talk to a specialist followed by roughly a year before you get any help in terms of HRT or puberty blockers. At that point pubertys done and you now feel disgusting in your body and know that your future is even fucking harder because you have to go through that miserable first couple of years where you are transitioning but dont look your gender of choice and just feel horrible.
The governments treatment of young trans people is abhorrent and I hope the next one to come in properly helps trans people because god knows we need the support
Sounds like politics messing with healthcare to me.
Shouldn’t be legal without doctor advice or treatment wtf
11 comments
>#Children buying puberty blockers could be referred to police or social services
>__NHS proposals would see local authorities alerted when young people obtain hormone therapies on the private market__
>By Gabriella Swerling,
>SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR
>18 October 2022 • 5:50pm
>Children who buy puberty blockers could be referred to police or social services under new NHS proposals for treating young transgender patients, leaked plans suggest.
>NHS England drafted new guidelines for treating trans children, which would see local authorities alerted in cases where young people obtain hormone therapies or puberty blockers on the private market.
>The guidelines, which have not been made public, are part of a wide-ranging review of the treatment of young transgender people seeking care under the NHS.
>Children wishing to transition can currently do so with medical intervention, a practice which has been criticised by some doctors as well as families. However, the years-long wait for treatment has prompted some young people to seek medication through unregulated online pharmacies, or privately.
>According to the document, seen by Reuters, NHS professionals can advise a patient’s primary care doctor to instigate “safeguarding protocols” if they decide they should not be taking hormones or puberty blockers obtained privately.
>__NHS warning over buying drugs online__
>It does not elaborate on what these “safeguarding protocols” could entail. However, under NHS protocols, “safeguarding teams” are made up of representatives of the police, medical and social services professionals who are responsible for ensuring a child’s safety and wellbeing.
>The NHS previously “strongly discouraged” people from purchasing medication to change gender online, from providers that are not regulated within the UK.
>Dr Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, said in a statement last week: “No one should be purchasing illegal, unknown and potentially life-threatening drugs online.”
>Last year the Court of Appeal ruled that children under 16 would be allowed to take puberty blockers without parental consent.
>The court overturned a previous judgement which deemed under-16s unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent to be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs.
>Medical experts had told the court that taking puberty blockers could have “unknown and life-changing consequences” for children and impact their fertility.
>The new proposals, according to Reuters, would give the NHS far stricter oversight of young people wishing to change gender and say there is an “urgent need” to establish new services for transgender youth “as quickly as possible”.
>Other changes in the draft guidelines are said to include: allowing only NHS professionals to refer young people for gender care, having clinics staffed with teams endowed with wider professional experience, and requiring meetings between referring staff and a clinic to establish if gender clinics are the best option for treatment.
>__Only gender care clinic for children being dissolved__
>The NHS is dissolving the only gender care clinic for children in England, the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), at the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust from spring 2023. It was shut down after being criticised in an interim report by Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people.
>In July, NHS England said it intended to build a “more resilient service” by expanding regional provision, and would establish two services led by specialist children’s hospitals in London and north-west England, and which would operate under the new guidelines.
>According to NHS data, referrals to the clinic rose to more than 5,000 patients in the most recent financial year from 210 a decade ago. The average waiting time to see gender care professionals is now around three years.
>A spokesperson for NHS England declined to comment on the draft guidelines. It has previously said it will share its preliminary guidelines to allow the public to review and give feedback.
>The Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust did not respond to request for comment.
>Cleo Madeleine, a spokesperson for Gendered Intelligence, a national transgender-led charity which provides training, support and policy advice, said the charity did not want to comment directly on the draft document.
>However, she told Reuters that any new guidelines must avoid a “rehash” of the current system, which has “so many administrative barriers and capacity issues that it became unsustainable”.
I might be in the minority here but why the fuck would a child be getting puberty blockers. They absolutely not at an age to be making these decisions.
[deleted]
The precedent that moves like this set, of course, is that minors (under 18, not 16) are not able to consent to medical procedures, including of course, abortion. The entire push behind ‘trans children’ – a phrase which generally refers to teens anyway, deliberately used to imply tiny kids – being controlled is funded and pushed by anti-abortion groups, often evangelical and American in origin.
They won’t stop at this if they get their way.
> Dr Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director, said in a statement last week: “No one should be purchasing illegal, unknown and potentially life-threatening drugs online.”
This seems to be the main take home message. Fuck knows what those kids are swallowing, it could be anything.
So I assume the kids using illegally purchased blockers will no longer tell their doctors they are doing so.
Which would mean this achieving exactly the opposite of its supposed aim.
Children should not be buying these, however they would not be tempted to if access to gender identity clinics was quicker and easier. Children questioning their gender deserve access to the necessary services as soon as possible to help them navigate their feelings and potential treatment options. The fact that we have waiting lists stretching on for years for the initial consultation is why some children are turning to desperate measures such as this.
Self medication with online bought products should absolutely be discouraged. We’ve seen it with synthetic highs, diet pills, erection pills and anti-depressants. They’re cut with the cheapest things that can be found and can be little more than poison. Then when they’re admitted to hospital the doctors have no idea what they’ve taken making treating them much more difficult.
Well maybe they wouldn’t need to do so if the wait times werent so fucking shite. 6 years to even talk to a specialist followed by roughly a year before you get any help in terms of HRT or puberty blockers. At that point pubertys done and you now feel disgusting in your body and know that your future is even fucking harder because you have to go through that miserable first couple of years where you are transitioning but dont look your gender of choice and just feel horrible.
The governments treatment of young trans people is abhorrent and I hope the next one to come in properly helps trans people because god knows we need the support
Sounds like politics messing with healthcare to me.
Shouldn’t be legal without doctor advice or treatment wtf