Genspect Welcomes Dr Hilary Cass’s Report

Genspect welcomes Dr Hilary Cass’s report and we look forward to seeing a wider range of treatment options and more evidence-based approaches to gender-questioning children and young people from this day forward.

This is a field that is shaped by too much theory and not enough quality research. Dr Cass’s report goes some way in rebalancing this situation. It has now come to light that medical transition for children and young people is harmful and should not be permitted. Children are not equipped to make life-long decisions about medical transition procedures. Adolescence and young adulthood are key developmental stages during which identity is evolving. It is appropriate to encourage young people to accept not reject their bodies.

The Cass Report is an important line in the sand for the UK; a child’s right to an open future can now be protected. No longer will they reach eighteen with an arrested sexual development. However, in the wake of the closure of the Tavistock GID’s clinic, we remain concerned about the growing number of private clinics, such as GenderGP and Gender Plus, which enable children to avail of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones outside of the NHS and for whom the concerns about safeguarding are the same as for the Tavistock, if not higher.

GenderGP, the online gender clinic, was sharply criticised when a medical tribunal found that Dr Helen Webberly’s fitness to practise was impaired by reason of a 2018 conviction for running an unregistered medical agency. In June 2022 she was suspended for serious misconduct for putting three patients, aged 11, 12, and 17, at “unwarranted risk of harm” by failing to provide good clinical care. Meanwhile, Webberly’s husband, Dr. Michael Webberley, was recently found guilty of recklessly prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to patients as young as 9.

Additionally, profit-making clinics such as Gender Plus, a private clinic set up by former staff from GIDS at the Tavistock, provide referrals for hormones and surgery to children and teenagers. This private clinic opened as a consequence of NHS England’s announcement of the closure of the Tavistock amid safety fears.

The rollout of the regional centres, as proposed by Cass, seems to have run aground, mostly because the very same clinicians who oversaw GIDS at the Tavistock are part of the team who are seeking to offer a better, more appropriate alternative. Now that Cass’s final report is out, this issue needs to be urgently addressed.

For further comment please email: media@genspect.org

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash