Tag: Gender Dysphoria

Parents of ”trans” kids. Part 4

Getting a referral to GIDs.

In this post I cover the parent’s thoughts on referrals to Gender Clinics. What is striking is the various ways children can be referred to the national, NHS, Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) also referred to as the Tavistock.

You can access the rest of the series here, if you want to go through them in order: 👇

Parents of ”trans kids”: Series 2

I am particularly concerned at the presence of “educational professionals” on this list. I am not, however, surprised because so many of the Transgender Guidance packs also imply, or state, that teachers can be involved in referrals. This is not appropriate.

Some of the parents found the referral process quite easy but some encountered difficulties which are, variously, ascribed to ignorance, or prejudice on the part of the health professionals or other agency. Most were referred by the mental health services for children and adolescents (CAMHS). Many of the children were not originally referred to CAMHS because of gender identity issues, meaning they had pre-existing mental health issues.

Here Lesley explains that she felt her child’s issue was gender identity and why she instigated the referral to GIDs. Her daughter was struggling with self-harm and suicide ideation. Another parent had the idea suggested by the psychiatrist who was of the view ”the gender stuff was a big issue“. 👇

Parents were often very proactive in ensuring their child had a referral. Here the persistence paid off and, after a few questions and a bit of paperwork they achieved the desired outcome; referral to GIDs.

Not all parents had such a prompt referral and some were redirected to their own GP. Ali also complains that CAMHS then abandoned them after they were referred to GIDs, thus cutting off mental health support and, presumably, reducing the numbers on CAMHS books. I concur with Ali that a shortage of funds may have driven that decision.

Unfortunately this left a vaccuum and Ali’s child sought on-line support. Ali does not elaborate about the sources, or nature, of that on-line support.

Mermaids

Here is Georgina, who you may remember made a doctor’s appointment the very next day her daughter “came out”, she tells us how she immediately joined a support group on line. There she learned to get Mermaids involved in the event of any lack of GP Compliance. Note that description a ”non-compliant” GP.

She needn’t have worried the GP was co-operative. He did not query anything but he did caution her to tell the father, of the child he was referring to a gender clinic. Georgina had made a tick list of all the things she needed to do and telling the father “was the last person on this…list” . Even then the father was painted as a potential obstacle not an interested party.

Another parent reported that their GP said he had not encountered the issue before and asked them to come back when he had done some research. He soon got back in touch and acquiesced to the referral.

Lisa reported a less positive reception from her GP who insisted, quite rightly, on referring them to mental health services. She felt her GP was dismissive and didn’t listen to her.

However, Lisa did not take no for an answer and persevered. She provides a bit more information, below. She considered the GP ”uneducated” but because they ”knew their rights” he was coerced into making the referral. 😳

Another parent was similarly dismissive of the GP’s knowledge so she sought also sought advice from, controversial, lobby group, Mermaids. Clearly he would have preferred it to be taken to a panel for a decision.

This parent was also quite scathing about what she saw as a lack of knowledge from an experienced, and senior, GP. Personally, I wonder if he knows rather too much?

Another parent was prepared to go on the offensive to make sure she obtained the necessary referral. Once again Mermaids were called upon to get involved. Turns out GiDS are accepting referrals from a trans lobby group!

How times have changed?

This is going to be quite a lengthy series to give you some insight into the world of parents of ”trans kids”. How did we allow it to get so our of hand?

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Parents of “trans” kids. Part 3

Social Transition:

In the introduction we are told ”social transition” can mean a change of name, pronoun, coming out at school and a visit to a GP, to get a referral to a gender clinic. It is important not to assume ”social transition” is harmless. There are a number of consequences to socially presenting as the opposite sex. Let me cover two. Firstly, if you look at the first series I did on parents of “trans kids”, it is clear the vast, vast, majority were also taking medical steps or at least getting on waiting lists. Secondly, concretising an ”identity” at such a young age forecloses options and may help cement something that otherwise would have may been transitory. This same ideology claims to believe in ”gender fluidity” but then treats children as if their “gender identity” is immutable. This is just one of the, many, central contradictions in the ideological framework underpinning transgender ideology.

There are also psychological consequences for the child who is presenting one way but dealing with a body of the opposite sex to the one they are presenting. To get a psychologist’s view on this, I recommend this piece on Transgender Trend website, on the dangers of social transition.

Dangers of social transition

Here is a clip from the article, written by a psychologist.

“Coming out” stories.

This quote from one of the parents in this research project is worth reproducing in full. This is a mum with a plan of action which she is putting into motion immediately. 👇. The mum claims to know nothing about ”transgender”children but she barely takes a breath before she has a plan of action.

She is doing all this before she tells the child’s father! She admits she had done no research and she did not even know if she was doing the right thing. By the very next day the teachers were calling her by a new name and a doctor’s appointment had been made!

The website then provides guidance on changing a legal name and then quotes another parent who has taken this step, against the advice of the Gender Clinic, who counselled caution. 👇

We then hear from a father who has a nineteen year old daughter about to start testosterone. We are told their journey began at age 13. {The website includes an aside her to remind us that “medical transition” does not necessarily follow from “social transition” but, as you will see, it is a rare parent who questions the wisdom of these, irreversible, medical steps.

This parent explains why she dislikes of parental acceptance for her ”transgender” child. On the contrary, it should be described as not rejecting her “daughter”.

She goes on to explain how they had resisted the entreaties of their son, but eventually, capitulated because it was all their son would talk about. At this point they had already spoken to a gender clinic and, it appears they were on the waiting. When they agreed to use a female name and pronouns it brought an end to a very stressful period, punctuated by bouts of crying.

Next we hear from a foster parent who claims she was the one slowing things down.

She claims the process was slow and she always left the door open for a change of heart. At the same time, when she is interviewed, she says she knows in her heart her ”son” won’t go back; ”He would never have fitted. He was never female”.

Next we meet Mel, a step mum, who explains her, and the child’s father, were the last to know about his son. They were concerned there may have been some collusion by the child’s mother and if her mental health issues played a role. The ”transition” also felt very rushed. 👇

Living in stealth.

The word stealth is derived from old English and the word ”steal”: “to carry off clandestinely without right or leave“

The next section covers the issue of lying about your sex. The author’s explain this is a personal choice, people have the right to conceal their sex, this is justified because ”trans” people face rejection and discrimination. It is worth pointing out that this is NOT merely a personal choice, it has societal ramifications. We tend to use the term discrimination only in negative contexts but being discriminating is also ”to choose wisely”. There are also some legitimate areas of discrimination, protected in law, such as the right to exclude males from single sex spaces. What the author’s are ignoring is the impact from the presence of stealth males, in female spaces. This is a violation of the boundaries of women and girls and shows a complete disregard for issues of consent. #MeToo anyone?

Here is Lisa talking about her child’s decision to withhold information from their classmates. None of the parents seem to even consider whether this is ethical. Lisa seems more concerned that she is not able to express her pride in having a ”transgender” kid in public. 👇

Kate says her ”son” will go stealth “if he can get away with it”. Quite apart from the betrayal of trust I cannot imagine the stress on the child, from fear of discovery. I would also point out that a female example provokes a very different reaction to a stealth male. I fear for a stealth female in male spaces. The opposite is true when this is a biological male using female spaces, in stealth mode. The consequences are vastly different when the sex is male and the spaces are female.

Below a parent tells the story of her stealth son; who would not let her tell the truth to his school. Her perspective is entirely from her son’s perspective. She wants him to be out, proud and accepted. No concern for the girls who think they are dealing with another female. The mum is, however, concerned that she may have betrayed her son by, covertly, asking advice from the school. Sounds as if the school tacitly agreed that this fraud could be perpetrated against their female pupils.

The above quote touches on another issue. How many of this generation began by performing their ”gender” in an on-line setting? I have seen more than one detransitioner talk about how cos-play in on-line environments cemented the idea life would be easier as the opposite sex. I covered a paper looking at therapeutic approaches to resolving gender dysphoria and the, female, client was using male avatars in on line interactions. She pointed out how much more respect she garnered as a “man”. One of the strategies deployed, in her therapy, was to find a strong female avatar and role play as her own sex. With that and other therapeutic work she desisted. You can read that case here:

Therapeutic Interventions to resolve Gender Dysphoria

I will finish this section with a quote from the Transgender Trend article, quoted above.

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Parents of “trans kids”: Series 2 Part 2: Coming Out

Now that we have covered the background to the author’s, funders and steering group let us look at what the research says. {Note also that the research adopts opposite sex pronouns and descriptions for all the subjects deemed to be transgender. There will be lots of ”his breasts”.}

If you missed the introductory piece you can find it here:

Parents of “Trans” kids: Series 2

There were twenty families interviewed for the research and they talked about their child ”coming out”, how they reacted and their interactions with CAMHS (Children and adolescent mental health services), GPs, Gender Clinics and schools. For some it seems to have come out of the blue, some expected their child would be gay and others seem to have strongly anticipated their child coming out as ”transgender” and enthusiastically embraced it. Some children /teens seemed to have arrived at the conclusion independently but some parents seem to have determined this pathway themselves. I draw this conclusion because of the very young ages of the children, the family dynamics on display and the ideologically driven phraseology; such as ”assigned at birth”.

The parents report varying displays of distress, in their children, such as this from a seven year old. Again the language seems scripted and the speed with which the mum, in this case, accepts the child’s explanation suggests a degree of collusion.

Many of the children were already experiencing mental health issues and had been referred to CAMHS. Whilst exploring their difficulties the parents are presented with ”Gender Dysphoria” as an explanatory cause, as with Ross, below. 👇

Many children were struggling with bullying, social isolation and not fitting in with their peer groups. The difficulties were projected onto a feeling of not really being a girl/boy; an explanation that may have come as a relief to the child/teenager and the parents. Not only does this provide an explanation it provides a pathway for worried parents to follow. It also focuses attention away from more complex, underlying, causes. Any parent facing this scenario is advised to look at my work on the accounts /research of detransitioners, you will find many commonalities. That alone ought to give you paise for thought.

More than one parent had expected their child would come out as gay. This is unsurprising as young Lesbians and Gay males display behaviour out of the norm, for their sex. Homosexual/bisexual youth are over-represented at Gender Clinics, which should be raising alarm bells.

This parent 👇 always anticipated her child would be transgender. It doesn’t appear to have occurred to her that the same behaviours, she describes, would also apply to a proto-gay kid. The ”Kate” speaking here is a foster parent who also works for the charity Mermaids (Lobby group for ”trans kids).

Here a parent outlines her expectation that her child would come out in primary school but this did not materialise until they hit puberty. This does not surprise me, adolescence is a key time for identity exploration and a turbulent time, especially for girls. It is not clear whether parental expectations could have been transmitted, consciously or otherwise. The child’s experience cannot be divorced from parental views or the societal obsession with all things ”transgender”, over the last decade. There has never been a time before where parents would assume their child might be a potential, transsexual.

Given the statistical likelihood of having two trans-identifying kids in one family I am going to hazard a guess that something else is going on here 👇. Perhaps the “transgender” child is soaking up all the attention? The second child will also have been surrounded by another possible explanation for normal adolescent confusion. Having affirmed one child based on their account it then becomes more difficult to question a second one:

In this account the parent places an undue amount of significance on toy and clothes preferences. What are boy toys? Were we not supposed to have pushed back on this regressive crap? Here the parent claims to have been ”thrilled” to have a girl who played with “boys” stuff. This is, of course, laudable but is a ”trans man” an uber, uber, tomboy and even more of a thrilling prospect?

This mum claims to have been really worried about her child coming out and what that means for the future but immediately seeks answers from google.

Sadly by seeking advice from google this, inevitably, means she will have encountered ”trans affirming” sites since google is a key promoter of gender identity ideology. Google UK even intervened to promote their preferred out come on Gender Recognition Act consultation.

You can read about this here:

Openlynews (Thompson Reuters Foundation)

Worth also pointing out that Thompson Reuters Foundation helped with the production of the Denton’s document. Marginalised minority anyone? {If you don’t know about that document check my blog. I posted on it.}

Many parents spoke of their relief on being told their child was “transgender”. I have some sympathy for that emotion. If your child is having mental health issues it is common to want a ”diagnosis” and a plan of action. Where the child confides in you it can also be flattering and an endorsement of your parenting skills. You may be pleased your child chose you over the other parent, especially if you are estranged.

Here two parents talk about the added difficulties when the child does not reside with both parents. Mel talks about navigating this terrain as a step-parent and Georgina on the angry exchanges she has had with her ex-husband. My default is to empathise with the mum, in most cases, but I make an exception for Georgina, for reasons that will become clear.

Just why Georgina’s ex was the last to know will become clear during this series. Here is a glimpse into how the “transition” of his child was dealt with 👇. As you can see the child is already at the doctors getting a referral to a gender clinic before the dad has even been informed.

Later in this series I will cover the research into parents who disagree. My heart goes out to those parents, especially those who have to watch the harms being done to their children and are powerless to prevent it.

Part two will be on the issue of socially “transitioning” children. This has much wider implications for other parents because some of them are not disclosing the sex of their children to schools.

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Parents of “Trans” kids: Series 2

Part 1. Who funds the research?

This series will look at a project featured on the website healthtalk.org. This project interviewed twenty families who believe they have been sent a ”transgender child” and some of the youth’s who identify as transgender. This series will look at the parents.

You can access the website here: 👇

Parents of “transgender” children.

Health Talks is run by a charity called Dipex.

The Chair of the trustees is a Professor of Medical Education. One of the other trustees is a Professor of Medical Sociology at University College London.

I have looked at the annual report and the accounts of associated companies. .There’s not much to share. They do say they have sister organisations elsewhere in Europe and the United States. I will research further if I track these down.

The research, I am looking at that was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Nuffield Institute and the University of Oxford.

The people involved in the research project reads like a who’s who of Gender Identity Ideologues. Those of your who are not neophytes will know what to expect when I list the people credited on the website. Listed first is Lui Asquith of Mermaids a charity for ”transgender” children. Representatives of other “transgender” charities also appear. Jay Stewart from Gendered Intelligence, the Reedes from GIRES, a representative of the Proud Trust also appear. No list would be complete without a Stonewall representative and there is also someone from the Tavistock gender Clinic. Ruth Pearce is an academic and former colleague of Sally Hines, who has written a book on ”Trans Health” and is a trans-identified male.

Cal Horton is the researcher who also looked into this area; a non-binary parent with a ”trans child” and someone I covered in my series on the work Cal has published, on the same topic. (Quite possibly based on the same parents). You can read that series here:

Parents of ”trans kids”

Suffice to say, there were no skeptical voices involved in the research project.

As if that wasn’t bad enough they also sought input from one of the most misogynist trans-activists! More to follow when I start to cover the detail. It is worse than I anticipated.

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Parents of ”trans kids”: 2

This is the second piece on some research, for a PhD, on families in the U.K. who believe they have a ”transgender” child. Part One focussed on experiences with “socially transitioning” their child. It followed 30 families whose children ranged from years of three to eleven. Most identified as the opposite sex but some were ”non-binary”. For this paper the numbers under consideration were the 23 families engaging with gender clinics. As you can see from the title there was not much positive feedback about the gender clinics, in the U.K.

Full paper is accessible here:

Parents of “trans kids” at Gender Clinics

Broadly the parents felt the clinics were overly intrusive in their questioning /therapy and unsupportive of affirming parents. The social transition of children is a relatively new phenomenon, in the United Kingdom, and these parents, who have taken this step, are likely to be more convinced/entrenched in their belief system. The negative feedback seems very much driven by shock that the clinicians, at gender clinics, were still treating these children in an exploratory fashion. The parents have already determined that they had a transgender child on their hands and they did not take kindly to being questioned.

It also needs to be borne in mind that the author of the study identifies as ”non-binary” and also has a “transgender” child. Both the author and the parents spent time in closed groups for parents in the same situation; groups which cater for “affirming” parents. Parents who are more questioning are badged as ”trans-hostile” and were not included in the study, naturally enough as these parents are highly unlikely to be ”socially transitioning” their child. Of course this does not mean non-affirming parents are insisting only girls wear pink and have long hair. They may well have a son, like mine, with waist length hair and a penchant for perfume and baking. Like me they may be comfortable with this variant expression of masculinity and regard it as perfectly acceptable for his sex.

A central critique of the gender clinics is they are pathologising gender diversity because they are tainted by ”cis-genderism”. They are accused of seeking a “cause” for the “non-normative” development of the transgender child. By treating it as a disorder the clinics are, from the parents, they are erroneously seeking explanations rather than accepting the child as a “transgender child”. This is anathema to these parents who are firmly in the ”born this way” camp. It is necessary to understand the parental belief system to comprehend why they are so keen to embrace their ”transgender” child even to the extent of blocking puberty. For those of us who see embracing gender diversity as a positive value which does NOT , should not, include a drug regime, the parents embracing lifelong medical dependence are a baffling phenomenon. To ”affirmative” clinicians it is we who are problematic. To the author of this paper, clinicians who seek fo find an underlying cause for the ”gender dysphoria” are the ones guilty of “medical violence” . Yes by practicing therapeutic exploration you are accused of doing serious harm. The framing here is duplicitous. Parents resisting medical intervention, for our children, are perfectly accepting of diverse ways to express your ”gender”; we just don’t think society needs to medically intervene to mimic the opposite sex.

The author clearly believes therapeutic exploration is akin to ”conversion therapy” and any questioning induces feelings of shame and is a path to self-harm and suicide ideation.

The study then quotes some trans-ideolgues who rail against pathologising these children, instead they should be celebrated. Many /all of these parents fervently believe in this perspective. Is it any wonder, as we saw in part one, they feel they have no choice but to embrace their child’s ”identity”.

The results of the study were as follows:

Quotes from parents are included to illustrate the themes the author identified. We are told that many parents became emotional /angry when describing their treatment by the clinicians at gender clinics. One parent is aghast that the clinician wants to explore the impact of a still-born child on her/the family. Another that she was asked about the timing of the transgender identity in relation to the father leaving the family home. Another is unhappy the therapist wishes to explore the death of her mother and a second mother is unhappy the therapist wants to explore paternal bereavement:

The parents are manifestly irritated by the idea of any causal factor in their kids adopting a transgender identity. To them it’s all a waste of time. The child just is trans and all they really want is to take action; by which I assume they mean access puberty blockers. From this vantage point exploring issues like family break-up, sibling rivalry, bereavment or even whether they practice rigid gender roles, is irrelevant. There are plenty of quotes illustrating this perspective.

Another thing that comes over, very strongly, is the parents feeling let down by not encountering unquestioning acceptance of the trans-narrative; which is labelled “trans-positive”. More than one parent reports that a clinician had expressed a negative view about the parent having socially transitioned the child.

The way the parents interpret the exploratory therapy is akin to an inquisition. One parents talk about how they “wised up” to the direction they felt the clinician was heading by their line of questioning. It is clear to some of the parents that some clinicians see being ”trans” as a less than desirable outcome. While the clinician may have thought all parents would prefer an unmedicalised future for their child it is obvious this is not the desired outcome for these parents. They have already decided they have a ”trans” child and invested, publicly, in their child’s identity and see themselves as supportive parents. They talk of the hostility they face for socially transitioning a young child, some speak of unsupportive family members. Imagine arriving at a gender clinic and finally speaking to someone paid to understand this issue who does not immediately affirm your child! It clearly came as a shock. This was a really revealing quote from one parent. They had been ”excited” to visit the gender clinic and were left deflated..

Overall the assessment was that the gender clinics were judgemental and parents felt unnecessarily scrutinised. This parent expresses what seems to be the generally held opinion.

More than one parent complained that they felt de-stabilised by any questioning. Two are quoted rejecting clinicians who told them desistance rates for children with gender dysphoria were around 80%. This is based on a piece that looked at all studies conducted prior to early medical intervention. The fact these parents seem to prefer lifelong dependence on opposite sex hormones should have raised red flags all over the place. The author does raise child safeguarding issues but it is not for these parents, rather it is for parents who are not affirming. See this excerpt below: 👇. One of the recommendations is to educate the parents and if they do not get on board the clinician should take responsibility for prioritising ”child safety”. What form this will take is not spelled out but it all sounds rather ominous.

It is perfectly clear that these parents are very committed to the idea they have a transgender child. They do not want to be questioned lest they are dissuaded? The kind of ”care” which would seem to be desired is outlined by this parent: 👇

I will follow this up with a later post when the author publishes more of this research.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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”

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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.

Continue reading “Bewley & Byng:” →

Bob Withers. Part 5

This section looks at how young people are being misled into becoming lifelong medical patients. In this section the author looks at different scenarios based on fictional cases which, nevertheless, draw on real life cases from his therapeutic experience. I will add in some observations, from my own experience, of parenting a trans-identified son.

In this section we have some reflections on how our children come to share a belief they are born in the wrong body. 👇. These ideas are not emerging in a cultural vacuum. What shocks me, to this day, is the promulgation of this ideology by Childrens BBC. Programmes like ”I am Leo” were marketing this ideology to our kids. The main culprit, in terms of my son, was ChildLine, who are run by the NSPCC. For those who don’t know this is the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who are the only children’s charity to have statutory powers to intervene and ”protect” children. The NSPCC is deeply implicated in fostering a bodily disassociation as ”normal” to troubled kids who turned to them for help. {You can find my entire series on the NSPCC from the menu}.

Even purported academic/medical conferences are promoting this ideology and are even funded by the very pharmaceutical companies who stand to profit from our children’s distress. 👇 Big Pharma trumps talking therapies.

Bob then covers some of the common narratives of young girls, identifying as boys, who claimed to have spent time socialising with wolves, but this is not a social contagion, right?

He then covers the case of an autistic female who shed her feelings of “weirdness” when she identified as male. She resisted puberty blockers because of concern about the health risks. Finally she reconciled to her sex, and sexuality:

My son feels ”weird” about being a male, attracted to males, who enjoys female friends, likes to bake and was ostracised and subject to homophobic bullying from a young age. What is happening to him now is Gay Conversion Therapy. 👇. Whether intended or not this is the result of this, deeply homophobic, ideology.

The clinicans who are dosing my son with sterilsing hormomes are criminally culpable and I would like to see trials and imprisonment. Will it happen? I fear not because there are simply too many, high profile, people who have staked their reputations on defending the idea of “transgender kids”.

Next Bob looks at the TV show Butterfly in which Anna Friel plays the mum of a boy, Max, who feels as if he was meant to be a girl. Series advice was taken from the lobby group Mermaids. The Tavistock apparently withdrew their support for the programme.

This was from the trailer:

The programme foregrounds the idea of only two options. Allow Max to be Maxine or have a child suicide on your hands. Later they also dramatise the idea of a child attempting to castrate himself; all promote the necessary application of puberty blockers. The suicide data does not support these claims.


Bob then examines possible pathways for Max/Maxine. One of these is a non-medicalised future:

As in the ITV drama, Max could have a medicalised future as ”Maxine”. What could be the outcome? One outcome is pharmaceutical companies stand to make a lot of money. Once you start a kid on puberty blockers they, almost invariably, proceed to cross-sex hormones. He will be a lifelong customer.He will also be sterile. In the long term he will have a significantly increased risk of suicide. This is the only suicide statistic that trans-activists shy away from referencing.

Bob then looks at some other consequences. There are some knowns some unknowns. I impact on bone density is a known, impact on sexual function / ability to orgasm is a dirty secret which some, post-operative, males have reported.

One of the consequences of puberty blockers is stunted genitalia, for males, which complicates any future surgeries. Even with “successful” surgeries there are issues re ”maintaining“ a ”neo-vagina”.

After a reminder that Mermaids advised the series producer, and some skepticism about the picture painted in ”Butterfly”, we are presented with an alternative scenario where Max/Maxine gets some meaningful, therapeutic intervention. Eventually he discloses some child sexual abuse and his mother’s feelings about his “sexually predatory” father. Max begins to consider whether these things promoted rejection of his sexed body.

Like many detransitioners this costs him dearly in terms of his social networks.

Finally the author draws these conclusions. Affirmation relies on low quality research and the silencing of critical/questioning voices with cries of ”transphobia”.

Withers makes a final point about the societal response to ”Gender Dysphoria” and other mental health issues. Is it our own discomfort which drives us to accept a medical diagnosis and treatment pathway. Have we embarked on a programme of sexual lobotomy? “Surely this must suit us for some reason”

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Bob Withers: Detransition. Part 4

You can read the other pieces in this series below: 👇

Bob Withers: Series.

Detransition

This part of the paper covers the consequences of unthinking affirmation of a gender Identity which is at odds with their biological sex. The mistake we are making is written on the bodies of our young who are taking cross sex hormones and having unnecessary surgical procedures.

Writing in June 2020, Bob notes the increasing phenomenon of detransitioners. These are people who have had some medical intervention to resolve their distress, under the aegis of a transgender identity, only to realise they have made a catastrophic mistake. Gradually we are seeing more public accounts of detransition and some, scholarly, research. At the same time James Caspian has been denied the opportunity to research this phenomenon, at Bath Spa University, due to concerns about ”reputational risk”.

There is a lack of reliable data on rates of regret / detransition. The phrase ”loss to follow up” recurs in many studies which ought not to be a surprise. Why would you return to the clinic who are responsible for your ”transition” ? We have no way of knowing how many of the missing 36%, mentioned below 👇, also regret their medical interventions.

Another feature of this research is the way completed suicides are treated. There were three suicides in a cohort followed up from a Nottingham clinic. They were not counted as detransitioners but their subsequent suicide certainly does not suggest surgery was an unmitigated success.

The use of misleading statistics about suicide, especially in relation to children, is one of the most egregious tactics used by the Transgender Lobby. It is leveraged to encourage parents to accept a “gender identity” and hasten them to affirm /medicalise. Yet the same groups show a marked lack of curiosity about solid data on post transition suicide rates.

Despite the paucity of formal research there is a growing community of detransitioners who are finding each other in on-line forums, conducting their own research and making YouTube content about their regrets.

Detrans Community on Reddit:

Since this paper was written the detrans subreddit has exploded in terms of its numbers as per below. Since June 2020 the reddit detrans forum has increased from 12,000 + to nearly 26,000 as of February 2021.

I have done two substack posts covering comments by posters, on the above forum. Below is the one on males who regret their ”transition”.

Detransitioned males

This is one on detransitioned females. There are commonalities between the two groups but also some sex specific differences in both the reasons for medicalising their distress and their decision to detransition.

Detransitioned females

The above accounts need more formal research so that we don’t continue to harm a new generation.

Dr Az Hakeem: Trans


This piece by Bob Withers also covers the work of Dr Az Hakeem, who conducted therapy for men who regretted their transition. He provides many case studies in the book ”Trans”. There are many reasons this group are marginalised/silenced. Some are related to personal feelings of culpability and foolishness about the, irreversible, medical steps they taken. Backlash from within the trans community is another reason; many are accused of risking other, trans-identified, people’s access to surgeries etc. This can be very powerful deterrent if your community of friends is drawn from within transgender groups. Many detransitioners speak of losing entire friendship groups when they detransitioned, especially if they questioned transgender ideology.

Dr Hakeem had the inspired idea of setting up a group for those with post-operative regret. He writes about how many became fixtures of this group and how it allowed them to recover self esteem. Another practice was to run combined sessions for this group and the pre-surgical group. The second group were looking forward to medical interventions. So what happened when they mixed these two groups? 98% abandoned the idea of medical treatments for their feelings of gender dysphoria

The group who voluntarily referred themselves to Dr Hakeem were a self-selecting group. Its hard to argue they were representative but it is noteworthy that they were prepared to go back to the gender clinic and make their regret clear. It is odd that this didn’t result in more research and better follow up of their post-surgical clients. Even more odd is the fact we have actually lowered the bar to medical intervention, in recent years. Given the explosion of people with a ”transgender” identity and the average time estimated for regret to set in, what kind of situation will we face in a decade?

My fifth piece from this paper will explore how young people came to their belief in a personal identity as ”transgender”.

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Bob Withers: Medicalising distress.

This is part 3 on an excellent paper by Bob Withers.

You can read parts one and two here:

Bob Withers: Series.

Why are we treating distress by blocking puberty, prescribing cross-sex hormones and surgeries? Not only are we ignoring the underlying issues we are creating new, medical, issues for this vulnerable group. Below are the kind of co-morbidities which exist within this group now labelled as ”transgender”. Underlying issues are left untreated by this rush to label these kids as “trans” and medicalise their distress. We have had medical fads before and are now, uncritically, assuming these psychological problems as the state of being ”transgender”. This is a label of convenience, which just happens to make pharmaceutical companies a lot of money.

This diagnosis is encouraged by trans-activists who believe they are supporting a new civil rights issue. Children are also being bombarded by trans-ideology by broadcasters, like the BBC and purported children’s charities like the NSPCC, via ChildLine. Our kids follow YouTube influencers and can easily find out how to access drugs by learning a script. The script may include invented childhood histories, real or claimed self-harming and suicide threats. These stories are replete with reinterpretations of the past and may include the phrase ”authentic self” accompanied by unverifiable claims to feel like the opposite sex. Using these phrases it is all too easy to obtain drugs from a credulous, or cowed, medical profession. These drug pushers have either imbibed the propaganda, or are operating a profitable sideline. A decade long campaign has removed any meaningful ”gatekeeping” , exposing our kids to having their bodies mined, for profit, by an unscrupulous industry. Finding a therapist who does not ”affirm” your child is nigh on impossible.

Big Pharma!

This is where it starts to get sinister. In the previous blog Pfizer pharmaceuticals were funding a conference hosted at the Tavistock gender clinic. Here we discover that Ferrings Pharmaceuticals are funding studies on the drugs they are making massive profits from!

I did a bit of digging on the Electoral Commission’s superb database. Heres the headline figure from donations made, by Ferring pharmaceuticals to the Liberal Democrats.

Here’s a screen shot of the list. That entire sum went to the LibDems!

Denton’s Document

Withers is referring to the Denton’s document, below, which outlines the strategy for making sure laws are passed to embed gender identity ideology in legislation. This document was a collaboration between a trans lobby group (IGLYO), the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the worlds largest law firm. I blogged about that, sinister, document here:

That Denton’s Document

Follow the money

He is not wrong about the profits to be made. This is just for puberty blockers. Note also that the courts shut down one profitable market, for corruption! Are our kids the new market? You, bet they are.

Consider the profits to be made by lifelong dependence on cross-sex hormones? Throw in the surgeries and look at the predictions from GM Insights. This tells investors where to head to make big money. You can read the preview of their report here: 👇

It’s an Industry


Here they project the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of these surgeries. Anything above 15% is regarded as a good return. Government policy is integral to the growth of this “market”. We are fostering a bodily disassociative disorder for profit!

Here they are estimating the market. They are leveraging the distress of our youth for billion dollar returns.

They do bury this information in the footnotes.

A stark warning.

I will end with this blog with a chilling prediction from the author. My next piece will stay with this paper but cover the section on detransition.

 

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Bob Withers: Autogynephilia. 1

I am going to do a series on Bob’s work because it covers a lot of ground. I will deal with the different sections in the same order, as the paper, starting with a case of autogynephilia encountered in Bob’s own clinical practice. ( He also covers other motivations to transition, the role of pharmaceutical companies, and the phenomenon of detransition. He ends with some hypothetical, therapeutic scenarios using fictional ”cases” to avoid ethical issues arising from using real cases. All important issues)

I was unable to access a PDF to save but you can read the whole thing here:

Transgender Medicalisation

Here is the abstract:

Detransitioned Autogynephile.

This article begins with a, sympathetic, portrayal of a man who is an autogynephile. For neophytes this is a man who is sexually aroused at the thought of himself as a woman. Chris sought therapy from Bob when he realised identifying as a woman had not eradicated the feelings which drew him to a transgender identity. He feels let down by the therapists who assessed him. The therapists he saw facilitated access to the, misleadingly named, ”sexual reassignment surgery” (SRS). This is a misnomer because It is not possible to change sex. Latterly this is being called by the even more euphemistic, and deceptive, term “gender affirming surgery”. A surgery some people come to regret as is the case with Chris.

Women’s Rights.

Before I tell this story, a word about women’s rights. It is my position that no males, however they identify and irrespective of surgical status, belong in women’s spaces. Nevertheless I can exercise compassion for *some* men who find themselves in this situation. I am glad there are therapists seeking to help men with AGP before they take irrevocable decisions. For this therapy to be helpful it should not simply validate their identity. It should aim to contain it before they hurt themselves, and others. I do not think it is helpful to affirm anyone in the belief they are a woman, trapped in a man’s body. It is harmful to the man and the women expected to provide, free, therapeutic support; in the form of validation and admittance to women’s spaces. When a clinician demands prove of “living in role” and tacitly encourages males to trespass on women’s spaces you are force-teaming women. This is not ethical.

My sympathy, for men with this condition, is qualified. It ends when a man, with or without autogynephilia, demands his condition be normalised, uses women’s spaces and promotes gender identity ideology, especially to children. When this is motivated by a desire to gain acceptance for a sexual paraphilia, we need to be able to point out this is unacceptable.

Withers opens with a poem and his interpretation of the underlying motivations for Attis’s madness and motivations for castration, followed by a return to sanity and regret.

Bob’s interpretation of the mythical experience of Attis is as follows:

We then leave the realms of poetry to meet a patient who rejects his maleness and locates the source of his distress in his male sexual organs. He tries to cut out his ”madness” by surgical inversion/removal of his penis. Following surgery his first emotion is one of relief: 👇

Chris retained his identity as a “woman” for nine years but, like Attis, his attempt to evade his maleness was doomed to failure. Chris could ”pass” as a woman but he still experienced the rage he had associated with his maleness, as a result, he had decided to detransition. As I have covered before, in my work on detransitioners, the medical professions are unskilled in this area and Chris had not been provided with the male hormones he could no longer produce himself. He now finds himself suicidal and his attempts to blog about his experience had also incurred the wrath of the ”trans” community.

Chris sincerely wishes he had received appropriate analysis before he took irreversible steps. We learn that his father was an abusive alcoholic who abandoned the family and his mother could only love him as a girl. It is not clear whether this is his mum’s actual stance, a trauma response to his maleness, perhaps, or if this is Chris’s projection. {I certainly have seen more than one case of a mum enthusiastically claiming a male child is her daughter which deserves psychological evaluation, of her motives, conscious or not, before medicalising the child}.

Chris had no positive, male, role model. His flight from the characteristic he shares with his father is complicated by maternal rejection, real or perceived, and further confused by early erotic experiences. Autogynephilia is described as an erotic target location error where a heterosexual man is aroused by the idea of himself, as a woman. It has been described as ”becoming the thing he loves”, it is a sexual paraphilia. Unsurprisingly Trans activists do not wish this to be discussed. I am probably not the first person to call this ”the love we would rather you didn’t name”. It is hard to sell trans rights on the back of a sexual paraphilia.

Even with my research into this area, as a lay person, he is describing common patterns of arousal, shame, purging and the accompanying rage. He had what passed for analysis at a gender clinic but was not challenged and became fixated on his goal. Impatient with waiting lists he found a private provider to perform the surgery.

That last sentence is important. “the evidence base supporting the efficacy of such treatment is extremely poor“.

This will be part one of a series. The next one looks at puberty blockers.

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