Renowned paediatrician behind bombshell report demolishing NHS's entire gender ... trends now
An eminent paediatrician tasked with overhauling care for gender-questioning kids has told how she was vilified while compiling her review.
Dr Hilary Cass faced criticism solely for engaging with all sides of the 'exceptionally toxic' debate.
The topic of trans healthcare has become so vicious that medical professionals are 'afraid to openly discuss their views', wrote the ex-president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in her bombshell 388-page report.
In a plea to 'people on all sides', Dr Cass urged those engaging in the 'worst bullying behaviour' to stop, warning the 'stifling of debate' by adults has not only let children down but hampered scientific progress in the area.
Her landmark report published today ruled children given NHS trans treatment have been set on a path of irreversible change despite scant medical evidence.
Dr Hilary Cass (pictured on April 9) faced criticism solely for engaging with all sides of the 'exceptionally toxic' debate. The topic of trans healthcare has become so vicious that medical professionals are 'afraid to openly discuss their views', wrote the ex-president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in her bombshell 388-page report
Puberty blockers, known medically as gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues, stop the physical changes of puberty in teens questioning their gender. Pictured one example of these drugs, called Triptorelin
NHS gender identity services for children and teens have been based on 'remarkably weak evidence', it said as it took aim at powerful puberty blockers and hormones.
In its foreword, Dr Cass said: 'Despite the best intentions of everyone with a stake in this complex issue, the toxicity of the debate is exceptional.
'I have faced criticism for engaging with groups and individuals who take a social justice approach and advocate for gender affirmation, and have equally been criticised for involving groups and individuals who urge more caution.
'The knowledge and expertise of experienced clinicians who have reached different conclusions about the best approach to care are sometimes dismissed and invalidated.
'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.
'Polarisation and stifling of debate do nothing to help the young people caught in the middle of a stormy social discourse, and in the long run will also hamper the research that is essential to finding the best way of supporting them to thrive.'
She also accused 'people on all sides of the debate' of misrepresenting studies to support their own viewpoint.
Dr Cass urged clinicians to 'cut through the noise and polarisation' to provide trans-children with the same standard of care as others.
He review, commissioned four years ago, made 32 recommendations to overhaul NHS trans services to improve the care children receive.
Among them were calls for GPs to resist attempts by private providers to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones, 'particularly if that private provider is acting outside NHS guidance', she said.
The powerful body-altering hormones, which can permanently weaken bones, were banned last month on the NHS for children.
They are, however, still available, prescribed privately 'off-label' by some medics at non-NHS-based gender clinics.
Dr Cass concluded: 'The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.'
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today welcomed her findings and said the lack of knowledge about long-term impact of medical interventions meant people should proceed with 'extreme caution'.
Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, meanwhile, called on the report to 'provide a watershed moment for the NHS's gender identity services'.
He added: 'Children's healthcare should always be led by evidence and children's welfare, free from culture wars.'
Sallie Baxendale, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at University College London, also said: 'Exceptionalism often lies at the heart of medical scandals when services go rogue and start to operate outside the normal parameters of clinical practice.'
Previous research by the world-renowned expert has alarmingly found young girls seemingly lost between seven and 15 IQ points while taking puberty-blockers.
But in February, Professor Baxendale revealed academics had accused her of 'bias' by questioning if puberty blockers were safe.
In a plea to 'people on all sides', Dr Cass urged those engaging in the 'worst bullying behaviour' to stop, warning the 'stifling of debate' by adults has not only let children down but hampered scientific progress in the area
Today's 388-page review follows Dr Cass' damning interim report, published in 2022, which criticised the country's only child transgender service, at the Tavistock Clinic in London , as 'not a safe or viable long-term option'. The controversial service eventually closed last month, replaced by two regional hubs in London and Liverpool that opened this month
Today's 388-page review follows Dr Cass' damning interim report, published in 2022, which criticised the country's only child transgender
