Britain’s National Health Service has ordered an independent review into the use of puberty suppressants and cross-sex hormones on children. Currently, the NHS’s treatment model as applied at its only gender-identity clinic in London, run by the Tavistock trust, is based on international guidelines. However, a stream of scandals and legal action have called these guidelines into question. The Times of London reports:
An NHS contract with the Tavistock trust issued in 2016 says that it will “conform” or “broadly conform” to standards of care issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) in 2012. These say that they reflect the best available science and “professional consensus”.
However, Gene Feder, professor of primary care at the University of Bristol and an expert in clinical guidelines, said that these fell far below the benchmark for British healthcare guidelines used by Nice [The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence which oversees clinical practice guidelines in England and Wales] and that he would not recommend their use.
When researching my investigative story “The Tragedy of the ‘Trans’ Child,” an activist group purporting to be a professional association, the so-called World Professional Association of Transgender Health [WPATH], kept cropping up. The influence of this activist body on more significant, well-known health-care organizations, such as the World Health Organization, is worth further investigation.