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So, for people unaware, today in the UK we saw a massive setback for medical care for trans teens, as part of a lawsuit ruling. In short, under 16’s are now incredibly unlikely to be able to get access to puberty delaying medication. Explaination in thread.
The short version - A now 23 year old woman took the UKs major trans care unit for under 18s, Tavistock, to court. As a teen she thought she was trans, started hormone blockers at 16, later decided she was a Cis woman, and detransitioned. Came off blockers etc.
The short version, she believes the NHS was too willing to give her hormone blockers to delay puberty, that they should have put up more roadblocks, made it harder for her to get that medication. She wants to ban all under 18s from accessing hormone blockers full stop.
The basic version, she argues a 16 year old is too young to consent to trans medical treatment, and should be considered legally incaipable of consenting to treatment.
Now, as someone who went through the NHS for gender treatment, I fully object to suggestions that getting access to treatment is “too easy”, and incredibly low detransition rates suggest we’re not pushing people in who will regret transition, but that where we stand.
So, the outcome? Not a ban exactly, but close enough. The court has basically ruled “we are incredibly unlikely to find an individual 16 year old is caipable of informed consenting to puberty blockers”. Basically, near enough a ban for under 16’s.
This has huge implications for teens overall being considered able to consent to medical treatments, and if carried out will ensentially mean that no matter how young you come out as trans in the UK, you’ll be forced to undergo an unwanted and hard to reverse first puberty.
Now, the ruling is being appealed, and may get overturned, but right now, it seems like 16 year olds in the uk are considered generally incaipable of informed consent to temporarily delay puberty to make transition later easier and more effective.
Mermaids link to the ruling. Sorry if any of the specifics here are not perfect, slightly anxious tweet thread from bed. https://twitter.com/mermaids_gender/status/1333731705279172610?s=21 https://twitter.com/mermaids_gender/status/1333731705279172610
But yeah, basically one person regretted their transition, and is now going “well, I shouldn’t have transitioned, so neither should any person in the UK under 16. I made the wrong choice for me, therefor all 16 year olds are incaipable of informed consent”.
First puberty often comes with irreversible changes. Testosterone causes voice drops and facial hair growth that later estrogen won’t undo for example. This ruling basically ensures no uk trans person can avoid those irreversible changes, no matter how young they come out.
By 16, the body goes through a LOT of changes that can’t be undone. To force a teen who knows they are trans to endure years of those preventable changes is horrific.
The point of puberty blockers is to buy time. If you insist someone be an adult before they start hormone treatment, at least let them hit a pause button for a few years, minimise the changes to their body until you deem them fit to choose.
Every time you see a TERF say shit like “I’m okay with trans women if they look like women, not if they’re men in dresses”, think about this. Bans on puberty blockers let TERF label more of us as the “bad” ones. That’s the aim. Deny healthcare, then discriminate visibility.
Update, Tavistock has begun contacting all under 16 patients pending appeal on the court case. They are making plans to make every under 16 on hormone blockers stop taking them, until further notice. This is a dark dark day for many trans teens.
