The British government ordered transgender medical clinics to provide data about the evolution of their patients and their current conditions, after undergoing gender conversion therapies. In addition to this order to share data, the National Health Service (NHS) opened an investigation against seven clinics.
Rishi Sunak's government's decision comes his Ministry of Health received a devastating report highlighting the harmful effects of trans therapies in some cases and unknown in many others. The nearly 400-page document is called the Cass Review. It was put together by an independent body of the University of York. Its conclusions state that there is insufficient evidence to support the effects of hormone therapies and puberty blockers in adults and minors.
"The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress," Hilary Cass, a former president of the British Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who led the review, wrote in the introduction.
What became of the 9,000 trans patients in the clinics?
The information available to medical clinics about the current status of their patients undergoing these therapies will be critical for the government to fully endorse the findings of the Cass Review. They will give an overall picture of the medium- and long-term health effects of these highly controversial therapies. According to The Telegraph, authorities are demanding information on 9,000 patients at transgender clinics in the United Kingdom.
According to the Daily Mail, the Cass Review was initially supposed to include the data that the British government is now asking for. However, six of the seven clinics investigated decided not to cooperate with the team of independent investigators. They claimed that the report would give a distorted picture of the effects of their therapies and that in the event of negative results, the health centers do not want to be held responsible for them.
The Tavistock Center, a clinic that pioneered trans therapies in the UK, is at the center of controversy. It has performed hormonal treatments with puberty blockers on minors. The government ordered its closure in 2020 after an unfavorable assessment by health inspectors. According to the BBC, members of the clinic reported that some patients were referred to a gender transition pathway too quickly.
According to a letter from the NHS leaked by The Guardian, "We will be launching a review into the operation and delivery of adult GDCs [gender dysphoria clinics], alongside the planned review of the adult gender dysphoria service specification."
A "culture of ideology and intimidation"
Victoria Atkins, Rishi Sunak's Health Secretary, criticized the clinics that did not cooperate with the Cass Review. She told The Telegraph, "It is shameful that the adult gender clinics did not cooperate with the University of York's research to link the data from the children at the Tavistock so we can understand their journey to adulthood."
'What she revealed is that a culture of ideology and intimidation was allowed to trump the interests of children.'
Health Secretary @VictoriaAtkins gives @NickFerrariLBC her thoughts on Dr Cass' gender identity services review. pic.twitter.com/cjCMxKVh2q
— LBC (@LBC) April 11, 2024
In a national media appearance, Victoria Atkins further claimed that the "culture of ideology and intimidation" exposed by the Cass Review is extremely harmful to children, public health and scientific evidence. She said the woke ideology claims there are benefits to trans therapies in health centers. These benefits have no scientific basis. Rishi Sunak is putting the issue back on his public agenda.
Other European countries are also reevaluating and questioning these transgender treatments, not just the United Kingdom. Despite the push from progressives, Finland and Sweden eliminated hormone treatments in minors after their authorities condemned their effects on children's health.
