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The study, conducted by England's Health Service, said hormones should only be prescribed to teenagers with 'extreme caution'.
A landmark review in the United Kingdom has found that the evidence behind medical interventions for young people questioning their gender is “remarkably weak”, with some doctors recommending prescribing hormones to teenagers is a “common clinical approach”. ” has been abandoned.
The long-term health effects of masculinizing and feminizing hormones on adolescents are “limited and need to be better understood” and such interventions should only be taken with “extreme caution”, says England's National Health Service (NHS). The long awaited review has been done by. Said on Wednesday.
The review said that puberty blockers, which are given to pre-adolescents to delay puberty, were not found to relieve gender dysphoria or improve “body satisfaction” and were not found to affect psychological well-being, cognitive development and reproduction. Evidence regarding their effects on ability was insufficient or inconsistent.
According to the review, there was also no evidence that puberty blockers “take time to think”, as most of them proceed to young hormone treatments.
Hilary Cass, a pediatrician at St Thomas's Hospital in London, led a four-year review of services provided by the NHS for young people questioning their gender identity.
The review was based on an analysis of the evidence conducted by the University of York, which examined current guidelines for the management of gender dysphoria and the results of dozens of studies on hormones and puberty blockers.
Cass said that while doctors were generally cautious about applying new research findings to new areas of medicine, “exactly the opposite happened in the field of gender-based care for children”.
CAS said in the report's introduction, “Based on a single Dutch study, which suggested that puberty blockers could improve psychological well-being for a narrowly defined group of gender incongruent children, this practice is increasingly being implemented in other countries. “Spread from.”
“This followed greater readiness to start masculinizing/feminizing hormones in mid-adolescence, and expanded this approach to a broader group of adolescents who did not meet the inclusion criteria of the original Dutch study.”
“Some physicians abandoned the usual clinical approach for holistic assessment, which means this group of youth has been exceptional compared to other youth with similar complex presentations,” Cass said.
“They deserve much better.”
Cass also expressed concern about the “extraordinary” toxicity of public discussion about transgender and gender-questioning youth.
“I have faced criticism for associating with groups and individuals who take a social justice approach and advocate gender affirmation, and have been equally criticized for associating with groups and individuals who Urge to be more careful. The knowledge and expertise of experienced physicians who have reached different conclusions about the best approach to care is sometimes dismissed and invalidated,” Cass said.
“There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are afraid to discuss their views openly, where people are condemned on social media, and where name-calling reflects the worst bullying behaviour. This must stop.”
CAS stated the research had been “overstated or misrepresented” on all sides of the controversy, regardless of it being an space with “remarkably weak proof”.
“The truth is that now we have no good proof on the long-term outcomes of interventions to handle gender-related misery,” she stated.
Cass stated the goal of the assessment was to not undermine the validity of transgender identification or to roll again individuals's proper to healthcare, however fairly to “how greatest to assist the rising variety of kids and younger people who find themselves in want of help in relation to the NHS”. In search of.” Their gender identification.”
The NHS launched a assessment in 2020, amid a pointy rise within the variety of younger individuals questioning their gender identification and considerations that some minors had been being inappropriately recognized as transgender.
The NHS introduced final month that it will now not prescribe puberty blockers for youngsters and younger individuals exterior of scientific analysis trials.
The UK's first gender identification clinic for youngsters, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Belief, closed final month after years of criticism that it inspired minors to alter their gender.