Judge issues warning after online private gender clinic gave autistic boy, 16, ... trends now
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The most senior family judge in England has issued a warning over private gender clinics after an autistic teenager was prescribed 'dangerously high' doses of hormones.
Sir Andrew McFarlane, the president of the Family Division of the High Court, warned 'any other court' should exercise 'extreme caution' over contact with Gender GP, an internet-based clinic.
His ruling came in a case concerning the capacity of a 16-year-old trans-boy to provide consent to treatment, having already taken prescribed testosterone.
The court had heard the boy, referred to only as J for legal reasons, was prescribed a 'massive' dosage of testosterone by Gender GP.
The teenager was born a female and has previously been diagnosed with autism as well as having a history of anorexia and self-harm.
A private gender clinic issued an autistic teenager 'dangerously high' doses of hormones. The teen who was born a girl had a history of self harm and anorexia (Stock image)
He was given a referral after a single online session with a Gender GP counsellor before he was prescribed hormones and 'strongly recommended' to take puberty blockers.
The court noted J received a prescription despite no clinical evaluation taking place or a meeting between him and a doctor.
It also heard expert evidence from an endocrinologist who said Gender GP had adopted 'a highly abnormal and frankly negligent approach'.
Judge McFarlane, summarising the evidence in his judgement, wrote: '[The expert's] principal criticism of Gender GP's intervention, however, relates to the dose of testosterone that was prescribed.
'Not only did
