Puberty-blocking drugs for 9-year-olds at Glasgow’s gender clinic

Children as young as nine have been given puberty-blocking drugs at Scotland’s gender identity clinic, a report has revealed.

The assessment by NHS clinicians was published in the European Journal of Pediatrics. It also found that nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of children referred to the Sandyford clinic had some form of autism or mental health condition such as anxiety and depression.

Last week, a leaked recording revealed a senior consultant at Sandyford admitting that its methods are not backed by “robust evidence”.

Shut down Sandyford

Former paediatric endocrinologist at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow and lead author of the report, Dr Andreas Kyriakou, wrote: “Mental health problems remain one of the major coexisting concerns in transgender young people, as more than one-third of those attending our clinic have a diagnosis of a mental health disorder.

“Our study confirms the disproportionate number of young people with autistic spectrum traits, much higher than expected in the general population.”

Dr David Bell, former Tavistock clinician, said: “Sandyford should be shut down. NHS England has agreed that the gender service at Tavistock be shut down for these reasons. It is not that English children have different bodies or genes or minds to Scottish children.”

Leaked recording

In a recording, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, a senior consultant clinical psychologist said that mental assessments are almost entirely based on self-diagnosis and that it was not the job of the clinic to conduct detailed scrutiny of patients’ mental health before conducting life-altering medical interventions.

At the online NHS event, she said: “It’s not a forensic assessment where you’re looking at social work and school and all of those things. You’re basically just going on what they tell you.”

The consultant defended Sandyford’s trans-affirming approach – even if patients later change their minds – as ethical as long as the information provided had been “correct at the time of writing”.

‘Beyond irresponsible’

Campaign group For Women Scotland’s Trina Budge said the clinic is “nothing more than a one-stop conveyor belt for the medical transition of vulnerable children with nary a care for their mental health”.

Budge called it “beyond irresponsible” for Sandyford clinicians to allow young children to access “dangerous and experimental drugs” in contrast to “the carefully thought out and evidenced good practice being introduced in England”.

“There is absolutely no evidence to justify Sandyford continuing to medicate clearly vulnerable and troubled children with experimental and, what is becoming increasingly clear, dangerous drugs.

Government Bill

Last week, the Scottish Government’s Bill to allow people as young as 16 to choose their own legal sex passed its stage one debate in Holyrood by 88 to 33 votes. Seven SNP MSPs voted against the Bill and two abstained, the party’s largest dissent during its 15 years in power.

Prior to the debate, SNP Minister Ash Regan resigned as Minister for Community Safety so she would not have to vote for the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill against her conscience. This is the first time that an SNP minister has resigned over Government policy.

London’s Tavistock clinic will close by next spring, after the independent Cass Review’s interim report found it was not a “safe or viable long-term option”.

Recent draft guidelines from NHS England stated that gender-confusion may be a “transient phase” in children and young people, which in most cases “does not persist into adolescence”.