Bewley & Byng:

This is a paper from 2019. Raising concerns about the medical treatment used on children and adolescents with Gender Dysphoria. You can read it here: 👇

Bewley and Byng

The authors raise a number of concerns about the medical responses to children, and young people, with a Gender Identity disturbance. The paper covers the rising rates of referrals, minimal medical discussion and debate, reports of poor care and uncertainty around the evidence which is guiding medical practice. The authors also note the conflation of biological sex with social expectations associated with your biological sex; Gender roles.

The above is a neat summary of all the areas of concern. A specific concern is a move to an ”affirmative” care model. Broadly this approach argues we should not pathologise someone who believes they are the opposite sex, or neither sex, but should affirm that belief and facilitate, not gate-keep, access to medical treatment.

Rising rates of detransitioners is the predictable outcome. As covered in my series on Detransition. The authors highlight the changing landscape in terms of the rising rates of referral, the myriad of ”identities” claimed as part of youth subculture, and growing demands to have these identities affirmed via medical interventions. They also make that point that the GMC (General Medical Council) and the BMA (British Medical Association) adopt different positions.

The paper consistently appeals for more knowledge in this area of treatment. The 4000% increase in females arriving at Gender Clinics should have aroused some, clinical, curiosity. The % increase for boys has also been in excess of 1000% over the same period which was roughly a decade. However the inversion of the sex ratio to 75% female should have warranted urgent attention. Here’s what Bernadette Wren (Of the UK Main Gender Identity Service GIDs /Tavistock) had to say to a parliamentary committee on this rise. This was in response to rising rates of referrals. Clip from Hansard. Note the ”we feel that we are at the cutting edge of a social revolution”

The impact of long term health outcomes is also a factor that will need to be taken into account when long-term testosterone use starts to affect the bodies of these girls/young women, the long term impact of blocking a natural puberty and the health consequences of surgeries whether or not they are regretted.

Another important factor is that the treatment protocols have all been developed for the historic pattern of referrals where the demographic was older males, not teenage girls. The authors call for a reconfiguration of services and multi-disciplinary assessment teams with a focus on holistic treatment. Sadly the new Gender Clinics, set up by this government, have all adopted an ”affirmative” model of ”care”.

For those doctors working in primary care settings they have an unenviable task. While some doctors seem to adopt a proselytising role in ”Gender medicine”, there will be others who are more cautious. Any GP resistant to providing ”affirming” care may struggle to resist the pseudo-human rights organisations clamouring for swift access to “Gender Affirming” care.

The co-morbidities associated with this group include mental health issues and neuro-divergency/autism. Medical responses to this patient group are happening with little understanding of the rise in referrals. The authors are right to point to social contagion and the work of Lisa Littman.

The confusion of normal variations in masculinity/femininity with a belief one is born in the wrong body is having a disproportionate impact on our gay youth, especially Lesbians. There is also an over-representation of those on the autistic spectrum.

The study points out that all the long term research followed adult males and there are NO robust follow up studies on this cohort. Plenty is made of the idea that a denial of medical intervention leads to suicide but little reference is made to the post-transition suicidality.

I cover pre-transition suicide rates here:

Suicide in the Trans Community

Note that ”Practitioners have been sued for not providing sufficient assessment or information”

There are a lot of variables to consider: 👇

Are our children being told how much uncertainty there is about the pathway they have been put on, FOR LIFE!

The Memorandum of Understanding, referred to here 👇, arose out of activists capture of prominent professional bodies and associations for therapeutic practitioners. I looked in detail at this document. Here: 👇

MOU

This is the danger of the proposed legislation against Conversion Therapy which lumps in ”Gender Identity” with Homosexuality. The danger is that the diagnostic criteria, even where used, is sweeping up our gay kids who are often at variance with the sex stereotypes for their sex. Difficulty accepting sexual orientation can create Gender Identity disturbance. To these adolescents a faux-straight, medicalised, closet can have some allure. The rush to medical intervention is, indeed, worrying.

This paper covers the topic in a thoughtful and considered manner. They explicitly link current practice to Gay Conversion Therapy. This is exactly what is happening to my Judy Garland, loving gay son. There is a rush to prescribe and it is an impossible task for a parent to talk about risks when the doctors are going along with it. They are also right to highlight the misleading information coming out of the NHS, who seem captured by Gender Identity Ideology. 👇

On a final note they ask for more research. The crucial word here is INDEPENDENT. No more lobby groups writing NHS guidance. Bravo for mentioning autogynephilia. More doctors need to understand that males with a paraphilia fall under the trans umbrella. These men would be better addressing the, porn related, origins of their sexualised desire to embody a male fantasy, about women. Moreover we should ask if the NHS should be fulfilling a wish arising out of this paraphilia. Men, and women, would be better served by seeking to address this, therapeutically, rather than colluding with a male fetish.

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