In the wake of the WPATH files being released earlier this month, Ireland's public health service the HSE said that new treatment plans for transgender patients will not have to follow the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines.
According to the Irish Independent, the HSE previously committed to implementing the guidelines in 2020 at the request of organizations such as the Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI), despite resistance from doctors working in the country's National Gender Service.
The HSE was asked if the new model of care being implemented by recent recruit Dr. Karl Neff will follow the WPATh guidance. In response the organization said, “This will be informed by the best evidence-based clinical care for individuals who express gender incongruence or dysphoria and emerging and evolving international evidence will be reviewed as part of this work."
"There is no requirement for the outcome of this work to be aligned with the approach of any particular organization," it added.
The doctors previously raised issues with the "affirmation care" model because it wouldn't allow them to provide an adequate assessment of patients before prescribing cross-sex hormones or clearing them for surgery.
Their commitment changed after Journalist Mia Hughes published the WPATH files, which showed exchanges on WPATH internal message boards, and a video of a panel discussion at the Identity Evolution Workshop in which activist doctors disregarded questions about whether children can consent to medical procedures that have long-lasting side effects.
The communications on the message boards revealed that what doctors say publicly, is different than what they say in private. One example shared was WPATH president Marci Bowers saying that puberty blockers are "completely reversible" publicly but acknowledging that there is "no research" on how they will affect a person's fertility on the message board.
Ireland is just the latest European country to shift course away from the affirmation model for treating gender-questioning children. In 2022 NHS England recommended that the use of puberty blockers should only be used as part of clinical trials. Several other countries have since followed suit.
