Media roundup: Medscape, UK, and Texas

Written by Genspect parent Lynn Chadwick.

Genspect, an international organization giving voice to parents with children and young people suffering from gender confusion, has been featured in several prominent mainstream media outlets recently.  Genspect is contributing valuable and factual input to the conversation on the explosion of young people seeking to medically transition and the safety and efficacy of the current affirmative approach to care. 

Medscape

Malin Indremo, MS, from the Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University, Sweden, and colleagues explored the effect of the documentaries, “The Trans Train and Teenage Girls,” which they explain was a “Swedish public service television show” representing “investigative journalism.”  The two-part documentary series was aired in Sweden in April 2019 and October 2019 respectively, and is now available in English on YouTube. 

In their article published online in JAMA Network Open, the authors say they consider “The Trans Train” programs to be “negative” media coverage because the “documentaries addressed the distinct increase among adolescents referred to gender identity clinics in recent years.  Two young adults who regretted their transition and parents of transgender individuals who questioned the clinics’ assessments of their children were interviewed, and concerns were raised about whether gender-confirming treatments are based on sufficient scientific evidence.”

Stella O’Malley, a UK-based psychotherapist specializing in transgender care and executive director of Genspect, an international organization that provides support to the parents of young people who are questioning their gender, expressed her disappointment with the study’s conclusions. 

“I’m really surprised and disappointed that the researchers believe that negative coverage is the reason for a drop in referrals when it is more accurate to say that the information provided by ‘The Trans Train’ documentaries was concerning and suggests that further critical analysis and a review needs to be carried out on the clinics in question,” she told Medscape Medical News. 

In May 2021, Karolinska Children’s Hospital, which houses one of the leading gender identity clinics in Sweden, announced it would stop the routine medical treatment of children with gender dysphoria under the age of 18, which meant a total ban on the prescribing of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors.  Such treatment could henceforth only be carried out within the setting of a clinical trial approved by the EPM (Ethical Review Agency/Swedish Institutional Review Board), it said. 

Sweden is not alone in discussing this issue.  In 2020, Finland became the first country in the world to issue new guidelines that concluded there is a lack of quality evidence to support the use of hormonal interventions in adolescents with gender dysphoria. 

This issue has been hotly debated in the UK—not least with the Keira Bell court case and two National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence evidence reviews concluding there is a lack of data to support the use of puberty-blocking agents and “cross-sex” hormones in youth with gender dysphoria. 

And a number of US states are attempting to outlaw the medical and surgical treatment of gender dysphoria in minors.  Even healthcare professionals who have been treating young people with gender dysphoria for years –some of whom are transgender themselves– have started to speak out and are questioning what they call “sloppy care” given to many such youth. 

“The clinically prudent thing to do, if we aim to ‘first do no harm,’ is to proceed with extreme caution, especially given the rapidly rising case numbers and novel gender dysphoria presentations,” Clayton and colleagues conclude. 

Dallas Morning News

On Tuesday, February 1, 2022, the Dallas Morning News, which last year printed a bold editorial on pediatric gender medicine, just published a piece by Stella O’Malley entitled “What the ‘Sex in the City’ reboot can teach parents about gender-questioning kids.” 

In the piece, Stella provides the following advice for Charlotte, the character whose 12 year-old daughter tells her out of the blue that she doesn’t feel like a girl and is actually non-binary, complete with new name and pronouns, a scenario that parents in multiplying numbers are encountering these days.

“The advice I’d first give Charlotte, and real-life parents in her shoes, includes reserving judgment, continuing to listen and communicate, avoiding politics, and learning the lingo.  This is particularly important when supporting an adolescent or tween experiencing intense and developmentally appropriate identity development who announces they’re trans with no prior history of gender dysphoria.”

Stella then points out that schools are often making decisions about students without parental consent or even knowledge:

“Charlotte should think about what she wants to say to Rose’s school.  After all, they hid this identity from her, the mother.  At the very least, Charlotte should insist the school work together with her and Harry in her child’s overall best long-term interest.”

Stella then recommends a digital detox, noting that “research shows that social influence can influence young people to think they are transgender.  This theory is supported in the peer-reviewed literature, and even top gender clinicians are sounding the alarm.” 

Stella continues, giving helpful advice on selecting an appropriate therapist, investigating possible comorbidity, and keeping a child’s world expansive.  “Get outside and offline.  Ensure young people have some fun, get exercise or play a sport, and interact with family members, as much as possible in real life.” 

“The final bit of advice I’d give Charlotte is to take care of herself.  Having a gender-questioning child or teen can be difficult emotionally and lonely, especially in such a polarized climate.  A growing number of evidence-backed resources are available for people like Charlotte.  She is not alone.”

Times (UK)

In an article in the UK Times published January 29, 2022, Genspect advisor Sinead Watson relates her difficult story of detransitioning after seven years identifying as a man, during which time she received hormone treatments and a double mastectomy. 

Sinead identified as a man beginning at the age of 20, receiving hormone therapy and a double mastectomy.  She became part of a small but growing number of people known as detransitioners, discontinuing testosterone treatments at the age of 27.

“It’s hard to know how many detransitioners there are, because it’s hard to know how many people have transitioned in the first place, and long-term follow-up on patients is poor,” Watson states. 

Watson relates that the internet was her initial exposure to the idea that she might be trans. “I didn’t like dresses.  I wanted to play with the boys.  I wanted to climb trees and roll in the mud and things like that.

“When I got my period for the first time, I felt really disgusting and gross and embarrassed.  But that’s not UN-normal; not every girl gets that upset, but plenty of us do.”

Watson was referred to a gender clinic. 

Once she had an appointment, she says, the process of getting hormones was astonishingly simple: “Obviously I’m furious about it now, but at the time, I was pleasantly surprised at how un-invasive the questions were.  It was like casual conversation.”  There was no deeper investigation into what might have caused her depression.

Hormones didn’t solve everything, though.  She still had breasts, and binding them every day was painful.  The testosterone was also progressively damaging their tissue.  She underwent a double mastectomy in Manchester.

Watson relates: “All the problems that were supposed to be solved by transition were evidently still there.  By that point I’d developed bladder problems due to the testosterone, and I was experiencing severe abdominal cramps.  I just had this massive crisis of identity in early 2018, where I couldn’t believe what I’d done.”

She stopped taking testosterone but many of the effects remain.  “What I should have done was try to come to terms with my normal, healthy breasts.  I’ve lost that opportunity.  Now, it’s trying to come to terms with my scarred chest.”

Genspect, representing parents concerned that children are not receiving appropriate treatment and support, is alarmed by plans to enable people to change their legal gender within just three months of living in their acquired gender.  Scottish ministers have been under pressure from some campaign groups for the fast track to be available for children as young as 12.

Stella O’Malley, executive director of the international group, said: “If Scotland continues down this path, we fear that the coming years will see large numbers of regretful transitioners living with permanent and complex healthcare needs, all because of decisions they made when the Scottish government considered them too young to order a glass of wine.  This policy is a terrible error.”

Genspect would like to thank these publications for giving time, space, and a fair hearing to parents and others impacted by the current climate of affirmative care health policies worldwide.