In 2015, when I first started learning about the health and well-being of trans people, I knew very little. I went on a journey of discovery, and what I discovered wasn’t good. I was shocked, appalled, and disgusted by what I was reading, hearing, and later, experiencing. Trans people – including youth – in the UK were being harassed, bullied, victimised, shunned, picked on, and discriminated against. That was by people working in my profession – healthcare workers, nurses, doctors, and psychologists – who had formed an unhealthy relationship with these patients and this significant patient group.
In 2016, the Women and Equalities Commission found, and I quote, “The NHS is letting down trans people, with too much evidence of an approach that can be said to be discriminatory and in breach of the Equality Act.”
Back then, it was so bad I assumed that once we recognised the real issues that were present that things could and would start to get better. But they haven’t.
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It’s confounding to see individuals who have historically fought for equal rights, including people of colour, individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and women, now participating in denying trans people their rights to recognition, acceptance, and healthcare.
But the final blow came when the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Minister for Health, acting jointly, made an emergency order to start on June 3, 2024 to restrict the prescribing and supply of puberty blockers to under 18s. The order was made to “avoid serious danger to health”.
So, while experts across the world publish evidence-based guidelines to make puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones more accessible to trans youth, the UK government ignores medics and imposes bans. This will not avoid serious danger to health, it will cause serious danger to health, and it will cause death.
Published by GenderGP
Although some people may think that intersex people are rare, they actually make up around 1.7% of the population, which is comparable to the number of people with red hair in the world. Many children are born with ambiguous genitalia, meaning that doctors are unable to identify their sex as either male or female. However, let’s get one thing clear: Sex is NOT binary.
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However, the ambiguity of intersex people’s sex leads to healthcare professionals operating on infants to adjust their sex in order for it to conform to either male or female sexual characteristics. Doctors are legally allowed – with the consent of the infant’s parents – to perform surgeries on children, stripping them of any kind of agency over their own bodies. These procedures can also cause serious problems such as infertility, pain, incontinence, and mental health issues.