Children can avoid GP for sex-change drugs
Gendergp said children could get medication after online appointments with its counsellor
An online clinic is willing to prescribe sex change drugs to children without asking them to talk to a doctor, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found. A doctor at GenderGP told reporters posing as the parents of a 12-year-old that their son could obtain the drugs after Skype appointments with a counsellor. The disclosures will fuel concerns about the clinic, which uses a loophole that makes prescriptions signed by doctors registered anywhere in the EU valid at British pharmacies.
A CONTROVERSIAL online clinic is willing to prescribe sex change drugs and puberty blockers to children without asking them to talk to a doctor, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found.
A doctor at Gendergp, an online transgender clinic, told undercover reporters posing as the parents of a 12-year-old that their son could obtain the powerful drugs after just a few Skype appointments with a counsellor.
Staff at the clinic admitted that the puberty blockers could damage his bone density, and that there was too little clinical evidence to say whether they would affect his ability to have children.
However, they played down the possible negative impact of the drugs and told reporters that the 12-year-old could potentially start on puberty blockers within six weeks, and cross-sex hormones within seven and a half months of signing up to the clinic.
Gendergp’s doctor said the potential effect on the boy’s fertility was the “very tiny part that is very sensitive” about taking the medication. The clinic’s lead counsellor told reporters that if the 12-year-old took cross-sex hormones, it would be “no different” from a post-menopausal woman going on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) – despite the fact that they would prompt him irreversibly to develop breasts and could leave him infertile. Today’s revelations will fuel concerns about the level of medical oversight at the controversial clinic, which flouts NHS rules by exploiting a legal loophole that makes prescriptions signed by doctors registered anywhere in the EU valid for use at British pharmacies.
The Telegraph disclosed last week that Gendergp used a geriatrician in Romania to prescribe testosterone to a female reporter posing as a 15-year-old, without parental involvement.
Gendergp defended the practice, saying that “not all parents are supportive”, and that when young patients were able to consent to treatment “in their own right”, it could be “appropriate and necessary”.
In the second part of our investigation, Telegraph reporters posed as the parents of a 12-year-old boy who approached Gendergp on behalf of their child. They had two online appointments with a counsellor and one with a doctor, over the course of which they said the child – who was not present on any of the calls – had told them he identified as female.
The counsellor, Marianne Oakes, told the reporters they would not necessarily have to speak to a doctor before their child started on puberty blockers. “It’s a choice of yours. You can read about the medication that we’re minded to give you. We’ve got it all on the website.”
They elected to book a consultation anyway – with Gendergp’s doctor, Yasmeen El Rakhawy, who confirmed that the 12-year-old could potentially obtain puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without ever having an appointment with a Gendergp doctor.
She said consultations with a doctor were “an option at any point” and that the Skype sessions the child would have to have before obtaining the drugs could all be with a counsellor.
Responding to The Telegraph’s findings, Gendergp said that “not everyone needs in-person consultations” with its doctors, but they had “the ultimate authority on all treatments”.
Debbie Hayton, a teacher and transgender rights campaigner, said it was “appalling” that children could access cross-sex hormones without seeing a doctor, and called for the loophole to be closed.
Dr Jane Hamlin, president of transgender support group the Beaumont Society, said that online clinics like Gendergp had flourished because of the “horrendous” waits for NHS treatment.
She added: “We would always advise our members to seek medical advice when doing anything to their bodies.”
The lack of medical oversight at the online clinic stands in stark contrast to rules in England and Wales, which were tightened in December. Doctors can only prescribe puberty blockers to children under the age of 16 when the decision, taken jointly by at least two specialist doctors directly involved in their care, is endorsed by a court order.
Gendergp said that it treated children according to “stage not age”, and that there might “occasionally be compelling reasons” to prescribe cross-sex hormones to a 12-year-old “completely aligned with their gender identity”.
It added that while there were “no formal qualifications in this field”, its practitioners were “very experienced and fully educated in transgender healthcare” and were regulated in their respective countries.