he is \u201cdeeply uncomfortable\u201d about medication<\/a> which affects \u201ca natural part of our human development\u201d.<\/p>\nPuberty blockers stop the body from producing certain hormones, including oestrogen and testosterone. They were traditionally prescribed to children who entered puberty too early, but were later given to young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria and incongruence.<\/p>\n
Badenoch and Andrew told Streeting the trial was based on the \u201cdiscredited, yet still seemingly entrenched, belief in some quarters that a child can be \u2018born in the wrong body\u2019 or go through the \u2018wrong\u2019 puberty and a normal puberty can be \u2018paused\u2019 without causing irreparable harm to children\u201d. They cited infertility and loss of sexual function as possible side effects.<\/p>\n
Streeting expressed his own doubts about the trial in an LBC interview on Friday. \u201cThere\u2019s something about the opposition to this. Medication that delays or indeed stops a natural part of our human development, which is puberty, I am deeply uncomfortable with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, he added that he planned to follow clinical advice to go ahead with the trial, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s gone through rounds and rounds of ethical approvals to approve this kind of study. So that\u2019s the basis on which we are proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n
In responding to Badenoch and Andrew, Streeting said some children were going to \u201cgreat lengths\u201d to source puberty blockers despite the ban and that gender incongruence is a \u201creal and internationally recognised disorder\u201d, but added the condition was distinct from \u201cgirls and boys experimenting with gender norms, which for many children is a normal part of growing up\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cOnly a clinical trial (and longer term follow up) can isolate which outcomes can be ascribed to these treatments, supporting evidence-based decisions for future care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Streeting added \u201ccross party consensus\u201d on the Cass review when it was published last year was \u201ca key moment for taking some of the heat out of what is an extremely sensitive issue without stifling debate, where the wellbeing and safety of children must remain paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cDr Cass said, on publishing her review, that \u2018toxic, ideological and polarised public debate has made the work of the Review significantly harder\u2019 and it will hamper the research that is essential to finding a way forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is incumbent on us as public representatives to take the heat and the ideology out of this issue, and make sure that children\u2019s health is always led by evidence and medical expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Badenoch and Andrewsaid in their letter to Streeting that the trial would have no proper control group \u201ccreating obvious bias\u201d.<\/p>\n
In his reply, Streeting said this was incorrect and said a group of young people not in receipt of puberty blockers would also be studied by researchers. He said these children would be \u201ccompared with trial participants with respect to outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Wes #Streeting #calls #crossparty #consensus #gender #identity #ahead #puberty #blocker #trial #Gender<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Health secretary Wes Streeting… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}