The use of off-label puberty blocking agents in otherwise healthy children and adolescents, given their unknown long-term impact on neurodevelopment and osteogenesis (and who-knows what other possible ‘unknowns’), violates the most basic tenets of pharmacological prudence and ethics.
The fact that these agents are merely the precursor to ever-more dark and dreadful interventions makes their use even more reprehensible.
I suspect that this chapter of ‘advances in medicine’ will be reflected upon in the future with shame and disgust.
Vincent , how to extract our profession from the grip obtained by social science , where we see acquiesce to gender identity ideology as the determination of clinical protocols in relation to minors? The goal must be to see ( mostly lay) legislators become aware that the intuitively overwhelming majority of , say, the key clinicians, Child and Adolescent psychiatrists are not in favor of medical ( hormonal) intervention in minors. Most are silent, the young from real fear of career retribution, (just ask Jillian Spencer), and more senior clinicians, from fear of being labeled bigoted transphobes. If a voluntary plebiscite/ secret ballot could be obtained of such relevant clinicians and the likely result obtained, such evidence could be what legislators could rely on to obtain legislative support to protect future vulnerable children. How to obtain such a plebiscite? I approached AHPRA in my own state of Qld , to be respectfully told such a plebiscite of specialists would be beyond their charter. That was disappointing as, if such a statutory body could produce such an outcome, it could be regarded as reliably non “ political “. The N.A.P.P. also informed me that their association would be unable to undertake such a plebiscite of members. That leaves the RANZCP ( the RACP, being historically a likely lost cause... remember their response to then Health Minister Greg Hunt’s request for their opinion of the then federal government to undertake an enquiry of medical intervention in minors) . Such a tactic ( to obtain majority opinion from members) by the college ( and ? AHPRA) might also go some way to reducing their exposure to later class actions , if they have taken action, though belatedly,if and when , as we are told in Britain, such occurs here?
It just seems to me that any clinical recalibrated protocols, specifically in relation to minors, will require a two pronged approach, i.e. from both the profession, and the legislature. Nothing will change without legislative support, which will need to be , State by State.
Agree that a loud and clear input from a significant lobby of relevant health professionals were to state that this gender stuff is, at best, questionable and demands serious scrutiny is unlikely to evolve.
The RACP statement on the issue is fairly unequivocal:
“The RACP strongly supports expert clinical care that is non-judgemental, supportive and welcoming for children, adolescents and their families experiencing gender dysphoria”.
(As an aside I note that the College has committed support for the Voice “as it reflects their long-standing commitment to improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities” – Neither I nor any of my colleagues who are members of the College have had their opinions canvassed on this issue and there is certainly a significant number who question the positive health impact one could expect from the Voice - Perhaps not a lot of democracy there?)
On the other hand the RANZP position suggests some reservations:
“Gender Dysphoria is an emerging field of research and, at present, there is a paucity of evidence. Better evidence in relation to outcomes, especially for children and adolescents is required”.
As you suggest, I cannot see a ‘movement’ within the rank and file of the profession to demand a serious investigation of the status-quo given the ‘bigoted transphobe’ label that such a move would inherit.
I suspect it will run a course until such time that the obvious becomes ever more obvious and there will be a lot of finger-pointing and lawyers rubbing their hands together.
If and when it does hit the fan, in terms of class actions, given how wide such nets are cast, apart from State Health departments, individual lead gender clinic clinicians, I would expect statutory bodies like AHPRA ( regulatory body with a core function to protect the public from harmful medical treatments)
and the colleges ( psychiatry and paediatric) who are the bodies responsible for clinicians’ training . Break out the popcorn and sit back and watch. Yes Vincent the Voice issue you mentioned is just another example of ( inappropriate) virtue signaling. It is now impossible to be too virtuous, such a metric defines the peak hierarchy
Oh and “reversible” - when the last train has left the station, you’re not going to reverse the schedule and get on again. As the inimitable Hateful Head Helen said in 1989
… 'Cause shit fellas, if it ain't grew by now it ain't gonna
I used to participate in DailyKos which eventually blocked me, and when I said the specific term for these drugs is chemical castration, literally those words, it caused people’s head to explode.
“No it’s a puberty blocker.” Castration blocks puberty, and nothing else. Castrati had their “puberty blocked”. There is literally no difference between the phrase “puberty blocker”and “chemical castration”.
It’s like calling prefrontal lobotomy a “depression blocker”.
Because people are willfully ignorant of sex, even elementary ideas like “blocking puberty” means “castrating” simply go over heads. The beauty of chemical castration is that it works on both boys and girls. Previously you couldn’t “castrate” girls so easily.
I think the movement against this child abuse is gathering momentum. Soon, hopefully, there'll be no more of this gender reassignment medication and surgery. Some good MPs all around Australia, yourself and some good doctors as well as what's happening overseas. All very encouraging. Thanks Bernard.
Use to be that activists would say, probably some still do, with unequivocal confidence that surgeries were rarely performed on children and genital ones none at all. Of course, that has now been shown to be totally false.
What I am now hearing is that doctors can correct bone problems associated with pub blockers...with Vitamin D and other measures. And I am hearing that, in response to the low/marginal quality of gender related studies, that 85% of medical procedures have low evidence, and I saw an example of that given: the setting of fractured ankle bones.
At this point, I have almost no, 0, trust in institutions in regards to this topic. Who knows what pressure will come on the FDA to say that pub blockers are just fine and dandy.
This is the same person.: pediatrician from Yale, Dr. Meredith McNamara who testifies frequently, I believe, to defeat bills blcoking "gender affirming care" in states.
Great links DD. We could almost have been listening to Dr Michelle Telfer or any other Australian proponent of the affirmative model for children.
They all retreat to their utterly flawed Guidelines which have been mainly based on the much criticised Dutch studies which were in turn based on an older and much more strictly selected cohort.
A few good lawsuits, such as Keira Bell v Tavistock, might help. As would insurance companies raising premiums on this radical 'treatment' - esp surgery.
The use of off-label puberty blocking agents in otherwise healthy children and adolescents, given their unknown long-term impact on neurodevelopment and osteogenesis (and who-knows what other possible ‘unknowns’), violates the most basic tenets of pharmacological prudence and ethics.
The fact that these agents are merely the precursor to ever-more dark and dreadful interventions makes their use even more reprehensible.
I suspect that this chapter of ‘advances in medicine’ will be reflected upon in the future with shame and disgust.
Vincent , how to extract our profession from the grip obtained by social science , where we see acquiesce to gender identity ideology as the determination of clinical protocols in relation to minors? The goal must be to see ( mostly lay) legislators become aware that the intuitively overwhelming majority of , say, the key clinicians, Child and Adolescent psychiatrists are not in favor of medical ( hormonal) intervention in minors. Most are silent, the young from real fear of career retribution, (just ask Jillian Spencer), and more senior clinicians, from fear of being labeled bigoted transphobes. If a voluntary plebiscite/ secret ballot could be obtained of such relevant clinicians and the likely result obtained, such evidence could be what legislators could rely on to obtain legislative support to protect future vulnerable children. How to obtain such a plebiscite? I approached AHPRA in my own state of Qld , to be respectfully told such a plebiscite of specialists would be beyond their charter. That was disappointing as, if such a statutory body could produce such an outcome, it could be regarded as reliably non “ political “. The N.A.P.P. also informed me that their association would be unable to undertake such a plebiscite of members. That leaves the RANZCP ( the RACP, being historically a likely lost cause... remember their response to then Health Minister Greg Hunt’s request for their opinion of the then federal government to undertake an enquiry of medical intervention in minors) . Such a tactic ( to obtain majority opinion from members) by the college ( and ? AHPRA) might also go some way to reducing their exposure to later class actions , if they have taken action, though belatedly,if and when , as we are told in Britain, such occurs here?
It just seems to me that any clinical recalibrated protocols, specifically in relation to minors, will require a two pronged approach, i.e. from both the profession, and the legislature. Nothing will change without legislative support, which will need to be , State by State.
Andrew,
Agree that a loud and clear input from a significant lobby of relevant health professionals were to state that this gender stuff is, at best, questionable and demands serious scrutiny is unlikely to evolve.
The RACP statement on the issue is fairly unequivocal:
“The RACP strongly supports expert clinical care that is non-judgemental, supportive and welcoming for children, adolescents and their families experiencing gender dysphoria”.
(As an aside I note that the College has committed support for the Voice “as it reflects their long-standing commitment to improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities” – Neither I nor any of my colleagues who are members of the College have had their opinions canvassed on this issue and there is certainly a significant number who question the positive health impact one could expect from the Voice - Perhaps not a lot of democracy there?)
On the other hand the RANZP position suggests some reservations:
“Gender Dysphoria is an emerging field of research and, at present, there is a paucity of evidence. Better evidence in relation to outcomes, especially for children and adolescents is required”.
As you suggest, I cannot see a ‘movement’ within the rank and file of the profession to demand a serious investigation of the status-quo given the ‘bigoted transphobe’ label that such a move would inherit.
I suspect it will run a course until such time that the obvious becomes ever more obvious and there will be a lot of finger-pointing and lawyers rubbing their hands together.
If and when it does hit the fan, in terms of class actions, given how wide such nets are cast, apart from State Health departments, individual lead gender clinic clinicians, I would expect statutory bodies like AHPRA ( regulatory body with a core function to protect the public from harmful medical treatments)
and the colleges ( psychiatry and paediatric) who are the bodies responsible for clinicians’ training . Break out the popcorn and sit back and watch. Yes Vincent the Voice issue you mentioned is just another example of ( inappropriate) virtue signaling. It is now impossible to be too virtuous, such a metric defines the peak hierarchy
If it was correctly named, drugs to chemically castrate children or drugs to sterilize children, I imagine it would be illegal in a flash
The words that are used are important.
Oh and “reversible” - when the last train has left the station, you’re not going to reverse the schedule and get on again. As the inimitable Hateful Head Helen said in 1989
… 'Cause shit fellas, if it ain't grew by now it ain't gonna
https://youtu.be/oKa4Lsm0wwg?si=aBhB-y72m1w3RcOM
Your mileage may vary 🤭
I used to participate in DailyKos which eventually blocked me, and when I said the specific term for these drugs is chemical castration, literally those words, it caused people’s head to explode.
“No it’s a puberty blocker.” Castration blocks puberty, and nothing else. Castrati had their “puberty blocked”. There is literally no difference between the phrase “puberty blocker”and “chemical castration”.
It’s like calling prefrontal lobotomy a “depression blocker”.
Because people are willfully ignorant of sex, even elementary ideas like “blocking puberty” means “castrating” simply go over heads. The beauty of chemical castration is that it works on both boys and girls. Previously you couldn’t “castrate” girls so easily.
Also, the Channel 7 Spotlight program might give other media outlets the idea and courage to broaden the publicity.
Indeed, often people are waiting for someone else to go first.
I certainly hope so! That was powerful!
I think the movement against this child abuse is gathering momentum. Soon, hopefully, there'll be no more of this gender reassignment medication and surgery. Some good MPs all around Australia, yourself and some good doctors as well as what's happening overseas. All very encouraging. Thanks Bernard.
Use to be that activists would say, probably some still do, with unequivocal confidence that surgeries were rarely performed on children and genital ones none at all. Of course, that has now been shown to be totally false.
What I am now hearing is that doctors can correct bone problems associated with pub blockers...with Vitamin D and other measures. And I am hearing that, in response to the low/marginal quality of gender related studies, that 85% of medical procedures have low evidence, and I saw an example of that given: the setting of fractured ankle bones.
At this point, I have almost no, 0, trust in institutions in regards to this topic. Who knows what pressure will come on the FDA to say that pub blockers are just fine and dandy.
Interesting 3 minutes:
https://www.newsnationnow.com/video/dr-mcnamara-treatment-depends-on-the-transitioner-cuomo/8237773
This is the same person.: pediatrician from Yale, Dr. Meredith McNamara who testifies frequently, I believe, to defeat bills blcoking "gender affirming care" in states.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hyXQWmf2r0
Great links DD. We could almost have been listening to Dr Michelle Telfer or any other Australian proponent of the affirmative model for children.
They all retreat to their utterly flawed Guidelines which have been mainly based on the much criticised Dutch studies which were in turn based on an older and much more strictly selected cohort.
A few good lawsuits, such as Keira Bell v Tavistock, might help. As would insurance companies raising premiums on this radical 'treatment' - esp surgery.
Meanwhile the Australian TGA wipe their hands clean of the issue.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/06/are-health-regulators-turning-a-blind-eye-to-puberty-blockers/
One way of looking at this is through reports by adults taking a drug like Lupron for endometriosis.
https://icarebetter.com/endometriosis-forum/question/what-are-the-long-term-side-effects-of-lupron one example is "After effects were horrendous!! Severe bone aches, ribs pain, fragile bones, hot flashes, brain fog, difficult decision making, upon seeing rheumatologist I was diagnosed with Lupus!!! Thanks to Lupron for spoiling my life.
Lupron is an example of a puberty blocker used on healthy children.