The NHS have decided that there is no minimum age before a child can begin treatment for gender dysphoria. Freedom of Information requests seen by the Telegraph have revealed that toddlers under the age of five are being treated in new specialist gender clinics. The health service had previously proposed that referrals could only be made for children over the age of seven, but after pressure from activists this has now been dropped.
The treatment of ‘transgender toddlers’ is not the only cause for alarm
The Cass review was thought to be a turning point for child safeguarding. The government then started making positive sounds on puberty blockers and women’s single sex spaces. Was this a new dawn? However, underneath the surface, trans activists have continued to shape public policy, to the detriment of children’s safety.
It should go without saying that a minimum age of seven for gender treatment is already far too young. No child that young is mature enough to make serious decisions about their gender: decisions that will impact their future fertility, development, and mental health. The proposed age limit of seven was the flimsiest commitment possible, and now even that has been dropped. Already 157 children under ten are waiting to be seen. Without intervention that number will only increase.
This news comes just a few months after the Sullivan review found that a parent had been permitted to change her baby’s gender weeks after they were born – a move that was never even flagged as a child protection issue by social services. Wes Streeting promised that lessons would be learned, and findings implemented, but this latest backtrack from the health service gives little cause for confidence.
Those who have been fighting at the coalface of gender ideology will recognise this story all too well. At the now closed Tavistock clinic, three new children under seven were seen each month before whistle-blowers raised the alarm. Labour have promised us that in these new gender identity clinics things will be different, but recent events raise the alarm. It would be all too easy to allow the medical scandal of the last decade to be repeated, hidden from view behind promises that lessons will be learned. If the NHS is bowing to minor pushback in one consultation, then there is no saying how far they could go to appease activists.
The treatment of ‘transgender toddlers’ is not the only cause for alarm. Look at the new £10.7 million drug trial which will investigate the impact of puberty blockers on children. While many were relieved to see the last government’s emergency ban made indefinite by the health minister, there is now a serious risk that the drugs will be rolled out through the back door. The trial references no age limit, no cap on the number of participants, and makes no reference to those who won’t be eligible. What is to stop every child currently being seen by a gender clinic being prescribed these potentially harmful drugs in the name of a ‘clinical trial’. Can this sort of experimentation on children ever be justified? Researchers will be studying the impact of puberty blockers on IQ, sexual function, and bone health – how can any doctor ever sign off on subjecting even one child to such extreme risks for a medication which does not treat a real illness.
Campaigners and whistle-blowers have sacrificed their livelihoods to protect children from the harmful excesses of gender ideology. Women have lost their jobs trying to protect single-sex spaces. In some cases, parents have lost custody of their children for questioning medical interventions in the name of ‘gender affirming care’. The victories that these women won must not become pyrrhic. If the government’s commitments fade in response to just one consultation, which activists will have featured vocally in, then none of their other promises can be trusted.
Comments