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1. Embed this notice
   goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 02:50:32 JST goatsarah

   “NHS to end practice of back rubs for Godzilla”

   If you think the NHS was ever actually giving trans children puberty blockers, then I’m afraid you have fallen for a TERF fairy tale. The NHS has never actually done decent treatment for trans children. news.sky.com/story/children-to…

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 04:30:35 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Dog Noise Generator
     @Buster Transphobia rots the ability to think critically.
   • Embed this notice
     Dog Noise Generator (buster@woof.group)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 04:30:36 JST Dog Noise Generator

     in reply to

     @goatsarah

     These two paragraphs sit next to one another: 'Currently there are fewer than 100 children on puberty blockers, who will continue their treatment at Leeds and University College London Hospital.'

     "Ending the routine prescription of puberty blockers will help ensure that care is based on evidence, expert clinical opinion and is in the best interests of the child."

     Does this health minister not know what 'routine' means?

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 08:18:45 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • Bethan M. Jenkins
     @gwenynen And I bet not a single one is below 16.
   • Embed this notice
     Bethan M. Jenkins (gwenynen@toot.wales)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 08:18:46 JST Bethan M. Jenkins

     in reply to

     @goatsarah way, way down in the BBC report of this :

     "Fewer than 100 young people in England are currently prescribed puberty blockers by the NHS."

     I doubt many will read that far though 😔

   • Embed this notice
     goatsarah (goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 21:55:24 JST goatsarah

     in reply to

     • David Matthewman

     @djm4 they’ve always given these drugs to adults. They gave them to me in my 30s.

     The issue is that they have pretty much never, as far as I know, given them to trans children for the purposes of arresting puberty.

     I think the media narrative of referring to GnRH agonists as “puberty blockers” here is probably not helping any attempt at comprehension. It makes people think that’s all they do. They’re gonadotropin inhibitors, and they are useful after puberty for transition to allow HRT to work unopposed by endogenous hormones.

     Now trying to stop them being prescribed for that is their next target, and without invading the privacy of the person you mention, you say it’s been a five year battle.

     There’s no point prescribing these drugs before the initial onset of puberty because … well, they don’t do anything.

     So five years … puberty is mostly done by then, and you’re looking at a young adult transition type situation.

     Which they’ve always done anyway.

   • Embed this notice
     David Matthewman (djm4@mastodon.me.uk)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2024 21:55:26 JST David Matthewman

     in reply to

     @goatsarah Well, yes. But.

     One of my best friends has a trans daughter, who is just on the point of being prescribed blockers after a battle of about five years. We don't at this point know whether she's sufficiently far along that this will 'only' make it harder to find a sympathetic GP, or a final last-minute defeat after so long waiting.

     So yes, even within an awful system, this will make things materially worse for some trans people.