AN ABERGAVENNY-based GP has hit out at ‘knee-jerk reactions’ following her administration of hormone treatments to young transgender patients reports BOB ROGERS.

Dr Helen Webberley, who runs Gender GP - an online transgender medical clinic has been restricted from treating transgender patients unsupervised following the prescribing of gender-changing hormones to patients as young as twelve.

She claims the restriction and criticisms are not based on any medical evidence or research and ignore the unbearable anguish of young people whose identity concerns are simply dismissed by many GPs.

Dr Webberley states, ‘I did a survey of 500 transgender patients to see what they perceived as their biggest concern and discovered that problems with uncaring and uninformed GPs was higher on their list of grievances than transphobia or peer acceptance.

“It is not something talked about in medical school and many GPs do not understand it, or are frankly scared of it’.

Dr Webberley explains, ‘There are two types of medical treatment available to transgender patients; the first is a ‘puberty blocker’ - a 3-monthly injection which effectively ‘presses pause’ and stops puberty progressing.

“This allows the patient time to consider their situation. If the injections stop then puberty will progress.

‘In the second stage there is the administration of opposite hormones which create the sex the person wants to be.

‘Critics often have little idea of the emotionally unbearable stress of living with the need for reassignment. Suicide is a very real concern among young transgender people who are denied the right to live as they wish’.

Legislation already exists allowing young people to choose the sex they wish to be. The Fraser guidelines state that children under the age of 16 can consent to medical treatment if they have sufficient maturity and judgement to enable them fully to understand what is proposed. This was clarified in England and Wales by the House of Lords in the case of Gillick vs West Norfolk and Wisbech AHA & DHSS in 1985.

In a week which saw a Christian couple in Portsmouth remove their child from school because another male pupil was wearing a dress as part of gender reassignment, Dr Webberley commented, ‘It can take time for public acceptance to catch up with our treatment of minority groups but we can no longer ignore the needs of desperate unhappy young people for whom treatment exists’.