Children displaying transgender tendencies are likely going through a “phase” that they may come out of as they age and therefore most should not be subjected to transition therapies, guidance from the United Kingdom’s NHS has stated.
In a potentially stark departure from years past, draft guidelines published by NHS England have called for stricter rules surrounding the treatment of allegedly transgender children under the age of 18, going so far as to warn doctors to not take the so-called gender-affirming approach of indulging youngsters in areas such as preferred pronouns.
The socialised healthcare system has also said that it plans to prohibit the use of puberty-blocking hormone therapies for children, with the exception of strictly monitored clinical trials, The Telegraph reported.
“The clinical management approach should be open to exploring all developmentally appropriate options for children and young people who are experiencing gender incongruence, being mindful that this may be a transient phase, particularly for prepubertal children, and that there will be a range of pathways to support these children and young people and a range of outcomes,” the NHS document stated.
“A significant proportion of children and young people who are concerned about or distressed by issues of gender incongruence, experience co-existing mental health, neuro-developmental and/or family or social complexities in their lives. The relationship between these aspects and gender incongruence may not be readily apparent and will often require careful exploration,” the guidance continued.
The draft guidance went on to say that “in most cases gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence” for young children. Therefore, NHS England warned that healthcare practitioners should be “mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition” and the “difficulties that the child may experience in returning to the original gender role upon entering puberty if the gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence.”
As for teenagers, the document said that a “social transition” should only be opted for as a last resort, if it is determined that failure to do so would cause “clinically significant distress or significant impairment in social functioning”. The document said, however, that this must be coupled with the child being able to “fully comprehend the implications of affirming a social transition”.
The guidance comes after the NHS announced the announced closure of the controversial Tavistock Centre and its Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), which has been accused of offering puberty-blocking drugs to children after as little as just one consultation.
Since its inception in 1989, the Tavistock Centre “treated” some 19,000 children for supposedly having gender dysphoria, a condition in which an individual feels a disconnect between their biological sex and their gender identity.
The number of patients receiving such treatment has drastically increased in recent years, with the number of young girls being diagnosed with gender dysphoria at the clinic increasing by an estimated 5,000 over the past decade. Some whistleblowers have claimed that some at the clinic were using flimsy pretexts to put children on life-altering drugs, such as if girls did not display an affinity for “pink ribbons and dollies“.
Another whistleblower claimed that there were political motivations behind the prevalence of the use of puberty-blocking drugs, saying last year: “The treatment pathway of children with gender dysphoria [was] becoming ever more politicised, and moving away from high standards of clinical mental healthcare with good assessment and psychotherapeutic treatment.”
Ultimately, the London-based Tavistock Centre is now set to be shut down by the Spring of 2023 after an investigation found that it was “not a safe or viable long-term option” for its patients and therefore should be replaced with smaller regional operations.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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