More time was spent assessing facelifts than on life-changing decisions over vulnerable kids, Tavistock’s former staff governor reveals

Aug 2, 2022 by Jill

by Dr David Bell, Mail on Sunday:

Four years ago I compiled a report raising very serious concerns about the gender identity service known as GIDS at the Tavistock.

Around one third of its staff had come to me with some disturbing claims about the harm being caused to children.

These children were among the most difficult and complex cases they’d seen in their long careers, they said.

Many of them were girls and all of them were in a desperate state, with a history of depression, autism, trauma, a family history of sexual abuse or internalised homophobia.

A lot of them were actually lesbian or gay. And yet, the very principles on which the Tavistock had been founded – to engage with complexity and to gently explore why someone might feel the way they do – had been abandoned when it came to treating these children.

Their chosen gender was being affirmed, without question. They were being funnelled on to a medical pathway towards puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and irreversible damage, despite there being no evidence base and sometimes after only a couple of appointments.

Few were in a position to weigh up the pros and cons of this treatment, which include sterility, sexual dysfunction and possible neurological and psychological consequences.

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