by Bernard Lane, Gender Clinic News
Psychiatrists call for urgent tracing of Tavistock youth as the puberty blocker trial stalls
A group of 23 consultant psychiatrists has urged the UK government to pursue a follow-up study of the 9,000 minors seen at the London-based Tavistock gender clinic rather than persisting with the contentious clinical trial of puberty blockers.
“There will be a lot we can learn from this cohort [of ex-Tavistock patients] and this should now be the priority,” the psychiatrists wrote in a letter to The Times newspaper on Monday.
“It was alarming to learn that National Health Service adult clinics refused to co-operate with the research team who were tasked with this follow-up study, and we would hope that a reinvigorated effort would now be undertaken.”
On Friday, it was announced that the PATHWAYS clinical trial of puberty blockers, which was to start recruitment of up to 250 participants as young as age 10, had been put on hold after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) raised safety and ethical concerns.
Those concerns included the risk of “long-term biological harms” including sterilisation, permanent bone damage, and cognitive ill effects. In talks begun this week with the trial researchers, the MHRA is seeking a series of changes and restrictions, most notably a minimum age of 14 for participants.
Detransitioner Keira Bell, who is involved in potential High Court litigation to stop the clinical trial, said evidence of the harm done by blockers to former Tavistock patients such as herself was available.
“They can find all of my medical notes & tests, which I also have in my possession, to add to the list of children already put on [blockers] who suffered negative effects,” she tweeted on Sunday.