Parents of ”trans” kids. Managing Gender Dysphoria. Part 9.

Part 9 of a series looking at a project funded by, amongst others, Oxford University and hosted on the website healthtalk.org. In this episode they look at how the parents ameliorate their child’s struggle with a belief they are ”transgender”.

You can access the website here:

Managing “Gender Dysphoria”

This parent is worried that her child does not have ”Gender Dysphoria” but nevertheless she believes her child is ”trans”. GIDs are counselling her to follow ”watch and wait” , which used to be the standard approach because most children resolve feelings of bodily incongruence after going through a natural puberty. The mum is worried her child is not distressed enough about their body. 😳

Here is a check list of strategies for females which include breast binding, contraceptive pills to prevent menstruation and using a prosthetic penis.

Bear in mind this is a website dedicated to health care. Here are some of the side effects from breast binding:

The site openly promotes double mastectomy for teenage girls.

Georgina’s daughter has been defined as ”transgender” since she was four years old and wondered when she could get her ”boy’s bum”. In fact phalloplasty is not available on the NHS and it is a notoriously difficult surgery with high complications rates and poor results.

Not all the parents are so casual about surgeries and hormones. Some want society to be more accepting of “girls” with deep voices and different types (male) bodies. She is not happy with GIDs exploring whether her son can reconcile to his biological sex. She considers that harmful and thinks GIDs are hamstrung by their ”cisnormative” values.

This parent reflects on the high rates of depression and anxiety in the cohort of trans-identifying children they know. 👇

Apart from the casual acknowledgement of high rates of “depression” in ”trans” teens this parent shares their daughter’s inability to tolerate using the phone because of her female voice and fear of mis-gendering. Never mind testosterone will sort that out. One of the, irreversible, effects for which they are signing their daughter up.

Here Georgina makes it clear she knows how to construct questions to elicit the desired response from her child. The therapist is not asking the right questions. 😳

She has even used checklists so her child can select desired sex characteristics like a pick and mix! Her daughter is clearly giving different answers to a therapist than to her mum. I hope the therapist is picking up on that because the researchers seem oblivious to all the red flags!

Here a mum worries about how her son will be around her biological sister. Will he resent his sister? I am starting to see more siblings appearing to talk about the impact on them. (One girl spoke about feeling like an ”extra” in her ”sister’s” show).

Mermaids is the main point of reference for these parents. Here Lesley is not happy with the mental health services who discouraged her daughter from using a binder; while an in-patient for some sort of mental health issue.

Here the daughter is adamant she is not ”trans” but the mum is pushing the idea of binding.

Again the daughter is not pushing for medical intervention but is nevertheless now on the contraceptive pill.

Here a foster mum laments that a girl in her care has the genes of her mum and larger breasts than her foster parent. She anticipated they will be surgically removed. This mum has been ostracised by other foster parents who worry about the social contagion effects if their children mixing with a ”transgender” child.

Foster kids are at a higher risk of adopting a ”transgender” identity. The Tavistock report a 4.8% of foster kids in their referrals, compared to 0.58% in the wider population. I covered research on this issue in my series on foster kids. This is the one looking at Tavistock’s own research.

Gender Dysphoria: Looked after Children. Part 3. U.K. GIDS

Lesley’s daughter is using binders and packing a prosthetic penis which is of an unrealistic size for a teenage “boy”. Lesley finds that hilarious.

Jan’s son is struggling with male-pattern baldness and was very keen on facial feminisation surgery. The family paid for this privately. Later on we will find out he lost sight in one eye as a consequence. It is not made clear if this was temporary. Note they call it ”gender affirming” surgery.

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