England’s National Health Service (NHS) plans to review all transgender treatment, after releasing a report that found previous evidence for changing gender is built on “shaky foundations.” Pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, published into NHS transgender services on Wednesday a comprehensive review of the various forms of so-called “treatment” for people who suffer from gender dysphoria, according to The Telegraph. Included in the report are calls for the abolition of hormone drugs to children under 18.The report was four years in the making, and comes amid increasing concern for the recent trend of schools and doctors transitioning children without proper parental consent and sometimes, knowledge. The NHS will now investigate all transgender treatment provided to both children and adults. Any 16- or 17-year-olds who seek treatment at adult clinics will now be denied. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak supports Cass’s recommendations.There is no “good evidence” on the long-term effects of gender transitioning, the 388-page report that prompted the NHS review states. “Gender medicine for children and young people is built on shaky foundations,” wrote Cass. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”.Cass in her report warned of the dangers for especially young people under 25 and said children should be treated with extreme caution when it comes to transgenderism, because they would regret their decision later in life. Many children who say they identify as transgender have suffered trauma, abuse or neglect, says the report. It emphasizes the importance of not rushing into gender treatment while children’s brains are developing. A person’s brain continues to develop until they are about 25 years old. People with gender dysphoria should receive “unhurried, holistic, therapeutic support,” wrote Cass, explaining doctors are “unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity.”“Life-changing” decisions demand proper consideration into adulthood, not made concrete while someone is in the “vulnerable stage in their journey.”The issue of social pressure on families is also raised in the document, describing how parents risk being labelled as a “transphobe,” or face accusations of harming their child for not intervening in their transgender process. A common argument is threatening the parent with the idea the child might commit suicide if they don’t transition. The “toxicity of the debate is exceptional,” wrote Cass. “There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media, and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behaviour.”“This must stop.”Sunak noted the extreme increase of gender confusion in recent years, and said all cases should be handled with “great care and compassion.”“We simply do not know the long-term impacts of medical treatment or social transitioning on them and we should therefore exercise extreme caution,” said Sunak. The prime minister, noting the government already acted on the doctor’s earlier push to halt the use of puberty blockers for children under 16, said “we will continue to ensure we take the right steps to protect young people.”“The wellbeing and health of children must come first.”NHS spokesman Wes Streeting said the report is a “watershed moment,” and declared the wellbeing of children should be “free from culture wars”.Meanwhile, Helen Joyce, of the gender-critical group Sex Matters, said, “this is the end of pediatric gender medicine as we know it.”Chief executive LGB Alliance Kate Barker said, “we have known for years that for the overwhelming majority, gender distress resolves itself on its own and that these young people grow up to be happy and well-adjusted lesbians, gay men or bisexuals,” and the advocacy group welcomes “that time to think is essential for young LGB people who are most at risk from the extreme ideas of gender identity ideology”.John Stewart, NHS England national director of specialized commissioning, told Cass in a letter reviewed by The Telegraph the federal health agency said an external expert will conduct a review of all its adult gender clinics — and while that investigation is underway, all institutions are “to implement a pause on offering first appointments to young people below their 18th birthday.”NHS will “review the use of gender-affirming hormones through a process of updated evidence review and public consultation, similar to the rigorous process that was followed to review the use of puberty suppressing hormones,” wrote Stewart. England’s 12 adult gender clinics, however, refused to cooperate, the publication reported. A support group for parents whose child has gender dysphoria, Bayswater Support Group, said parents remain “very concerned about the provision of adult services, where some 70% of referrals are in the 17 to 25 age group and have the same vulnerabilities highlighted in today’s report.”The group’s spokesperson said it was “unacceptable” that 16-year-olds had been “transferred to adult services in order to clear the (children’s clinics) waiting list.”
