This, after the National Health Services of England (NHS) banned the prescription of puberty blockers for children at gender identity clinics last month.
In a groundbreaking review for the NHS, Dr. Hilary Cass found that the global clinical practice of prescribing hormones to minors under the age of 18 to halt puberty or transition to the opposite sex was not well-supported and that the entire field of medicine devoted to helping children change their gender had been "built on shaky foundations," per The Times.
The review resulted in the NHS banning puberty blocker prescriptions for minors at government-owned facilities, but Dr. Cass warned "I do have concerns about private provision which is not providing the level of assessment that I’m recommending in the NHS."
During a Wednesday appearance on BBC Radio 4's "Today," Dr. Cass said her team had "asked NHS England to provide advice to families about what it means if they go down a private route in terms of coming back into the NHS later."
"Because of the toxicity of the debate, [children have] often been bypassed by local services who've been really nervous about seeing them. So rather than doing the things that they would do for other young people with depression or anxiety, or perhaps undiagnosed autistic spectrum disorder, they’ve tended to pass them straight on to the Gids service," said Cass.
Dr. Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said she wanted to "help clinicians from all backgrounds realize that they do have the transferable skills to see these young people."
On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak contended that Cass's study was "very supportive of the direction of travel" proposed by the government, which called for greater prudence when it came to young people going through gender transitions. The prime minister said that Cass's assessment "broadly agrees with the direction of travel that the government is taking on this, which is to exercise extreme caution on these issues."
In 2020, NHS England commissioned Cass to examine the care provided to kids who experience gender dysphoria. A significant change in strategy away from medical intervention and toward a holistic model that takes into account any additional mental health issues the kids could be experiencing has been approved in her final report.
The report offered more than 30 suggestions for improving services. Children must be viewed "as a whole person and not just through the lens of their gender identity," according to Cass, who stated that "for most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress," per the outlet.Sunak stated that people should proceed with "extreme caution" because they are unaware of the long-term effects of sex change procedures. "We've noticed a sharp increase in children, especially adolescent girls, questioning their gender in recent years," he stated. I applaud Dr. Cass's expert review, which emphasizes the need to treat these kids with utmost care and compassion because their needs are frequently complex.
