Tavistock's Hormone Blocker Study Cleared but They Admit Blockers are Given for Cosmetic Reasons, not to provide "Time for Exploration"
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Due to criticisms of the study (also here) in the UK on hormone blockers given to gender dysphoric children to stop normal puberty, the Health Research Authority investigated the study. They claim it meets their ethical standards. The report can be found here. They describe the purpose of the original blockers study below:
The study 'Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorders' was developed in 2010 in response to broadening use of early pubertal suppression treatments across Europe, in the USA and in Australia. There were debates about the evidence of benefits and safety, and whether young adolescents could consent to treatments due to the potential for unknown risks or harms in the future. Some clinicians argued that the consequences of non-treatment were likely to be greater than those of treatment.
Michael Biggs, an Oxford sociologist who has been criticizing the study, comments below:
The Health Research Authority (HRA) has just published its investigation into the 2010 experiment with puberty blockers, or more precisely its role in giving ethical approval and oversight. The investigation was prompted by research published on Transgender Trend in March 2019, with an update in July (the full paper is here). The HRA report’s conclusions are predictably bland. Firstly, ‘the research team involved in the design and delivery of the study … worked in accordance with recognised practice for health research, and in some areas such as patient involvement and transparency were ahead of normal practice at the time’ (p. 11). Secondly, ‘The HRA has acted within its Standard Operating Procedures and its normal practice in relation to this study’ (p. 10).
He goes on to highlight that the main reason they are giving youth hormone blockers is so they pass better later and not to allow time for identity exploration. Identity exploration is often the reason affirmative model advocates give for putting youth on these powerful drugs that stop normal hormonal development by affecting the pituitary gland. Some of those quotes, as well as questionable claims hormone blockers are “fully reversible,” can be found here.
On close reading, however, the report contains an astonishing admission. The paragraph deserves to be quoted in full:
“It would have reduced confusion if the purpose of the treatment had been described as being offered specifically to children demonstrating a strong and persistent gender identity dysphoria at an early stage in puberty, such that the suppression of puberty would allow subsequent cross-sex hormone treatment without the need to surgically reverse or otherwise mask the unwanted physical effects of puberty in the birth gender. The present study was not designed to investigate the implications on persistence or desistence of offering puberty suppression to a wider range of patients, it was limited to a group that had already demonstrated persistence and were actively requesting puberty blockers. (p. 5, my own emphasis added in bold)”
In fact the 2010 research protocol declared that one of its three aims was ‘[t]o evaluate persistence and desistence of the gender identity disorder and the continued wish for gender reassignment’ (Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorder, proposal submitted to Central London REC 2, November 2010, obtained under Freedom of Information from the HRA; italics added). History is being rewritten to alter the rationale for the experiment. It is not clear whether this revisionist history originates with the HRA, or whether the HRA is conveying the current views of the experiment’s chief investigator, Professor Russell Viner (Professor in Adolescent Health at University College London) or his co-investigator, Dr Polly Carmichael (Director of the Gender Identity Development Service, GIDS).
Whatever the source, this is a clear admission that puberty blockers were the first stage on the predestined path to cross-sex hormones. After four assessment interviews, a child of 12 would be consenting in effect to a lifetime of drug dependence and the loss of fertility and the probable loss of sexual functioning. Because the “treatment” was intended to enhance the child’s desire to change sex, it naturally exacerbated her or his gender dysphoria. ‘Worsening behavioural and emotional symptoms of dysphoria’, the HRA notes cheerily, ‘would therefore not in itself be unexpected’ (p. 6).
Micheal Biggs goes on to discuss what he believes to be other ethical problems with the study in the full article.
Two BBC reporters have covered this story in, “Questions remain over puberty-blockers, as review clears study”.
References:
Biggs, M. (2019, March 5). Tavistock’s Experimentation with Puberty Blockers: Scrutinizing the Evidence. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/tavistock-experiment-puberty-blockers/
Biggs, M. (2019, July 22). Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers: an Update. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/tavistock-experiment-puberty-blockers-update/
Biggs, M. (2019, October 17). The astonishing admission in the Health Research Authority report: The purpose of puberty blockers is to commit children to permanent physical transition. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/health-research-authority-puberty-blockers-commit-children-permanent-physical-transition/
Clay R. A. (2018). Embracing a gender-affirmative model for transgender youth. APA: CE Corner (49)8, 29. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/09/ce-corner
Cohen, D., Barnes, H. (2019, October 15). Questions remain over puberty-blockers, as review clears study. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50046579
NHS Health Research Authority, (2019, October 14). Investigation into the study 'Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorders.' Retrieved from https://www.hra.nhs.uk/about-us/governance/feedback-raising-concerns/investigation-study-early-pubertal-suppression-carefully-selected-group-adolescents-gender-identity-disorders/
In Trans Youth Ethics, Gender Dysphoria Youth, Medical Effects Trans Tags trans children & teens