Puberty-blocking zealot STILL refuses to give up
Fears that ‘helpline’ planned by ex-boss of Mermaids will tell teens how they can get hold of gender drugs outside NHS
THE former head of the controversial trans lobby group Mermaids is planning to set up a new helpline which critics say will be used to advise children on how they can get gender drugs outside the NHS.
Susie Green said she is creating a service ‘that can be honest’ about the ‘utter s**t show’ of current NHS gender services and discuss private healthcare options with young people of all ages.
Ms Green wrote on social media that the helpline is needed because the new NHS approach to gender treatment, which favours therapy rather than medical interventions, is harming children.
But last night critics claimed she intends to use the helpline to direct young people to non-NHS services where they can access hormones and puberty-halting medication.
Bayswater Support Group, a parent-led campaign group, said: ‘Coming so soon after the NHS decision to all but ban puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in under-18s, it appears she is setting up this helpline to exploit a loophole around the lack of regulation of private clinics supplying drugs to vulnerable children.’
Ms Green’s plans have emerged as Dr Hilary Cass published a
‘It appears that she is exploiting a loophole’
major review last week of NHS children’s gender services, warning that gender medicine for young people was based on ‘remarkably weak evidence’.
On Dr Cass’s recommendations, children under 16 can no longer use the NHS to access drugs – known as puberty blockers, which halt development into adulthood – unless part of a clinical trial.
She further recommended that cross-sex hormones, which begin the physical process of changing gender, should be prescribed only with ‘extreme caution’ to those under 18.
At the end of March, the NHS’s flagship gender service for children at the Tavistock Clinic in London, which routinely prescribed puberty blockers, was closed after
Dr Cass judged it unsafe. But Ms Green has shown her displeasure with the Cass recommendations – which include replacing the Tavistock with regional hubs – by reposting a series of tweets criticising the findings.
Ms Green was head of Mermaids when it was found to be sending out ‘breast binders’ – restrictive garments with potential health risks – to teenage girls without their parents’ knowledge. She also previously advocated for the age at which children can receive powerful sex-change hormones to be lowered to under 16.
In her Facebook post, Ms Green said that her new helpline is needed because Mermaids is unable to direct youngsters to gender treatments outside the NHS, and insisted that it won’t be used to give medical advice.
Last night Ms Green told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Trans people deserve better. The NHS health services for transgender people need a complete overhaul as waitlists for people of all ages are in excess of four years. Just like any other type of healthcare, choosing to access private services to be seen more swiftly is a fundamental right, albeit out of reach for many due to cost.
‘I believe there is a need for a service which will offer trans people non-judgmental emotional support, including signposting to all available options as they navigate their own personal healthcare.’