The review of England’s child transgender health service is not a full stop in the debate but part of a continuing conversation
For most people their gender identity is the same as their sex at birth. But for a small but growing number of children and adolescents it is not. How to treat, clinically, this vulnerable group has become unfortunately a toxic and polarised debate in medicine and in broader society. Empathy and compassion are in short supply. But they are needed to care for young people looking for support from NHS England in relation to their gender identity.
That is why the sober and sensitive review of English health service practice by Hilary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, was necessary and important. In her 398-page report she found no “reliable” evidence that the benefits of drug treatments for children who identify as transgender outweighed their harms. It is welcome news that the current “medical pathway” in England will be revised in the light of its shortcomings.
