"Research showed that teenagers with autism or anorexia as well as those who had endured difficult childhoods were more likely to say they wanted to change sex." Some of the evidence presented in court from our side has been published in @thetimes today. thetimes.co.uk/article/autist…
Prof Gillberg said "teenagers were finding online transgender sites that suggested their problems would be solved if they changed sex. Autistic teenagers, he said, were particularly vulnerable to seizing on a single answer “to the lifelong identity problems they have suffered”.
“Thousands of adolescents are being offered ‘treatment’ with puberty blockers, sex-contrary hormones, and then, finally for some, with a variety of surgical procedures." But "non-existent research evidence that these treatments are of any long-term benefit to the young people."
"IQ might be damaged by puberty blockers, he added, and effects such as a deeper voice and facial hair, as well as possible infertility in girls taking the drugs, were irreversible."
Gillberg said there was “growing anecdotal evidence that many would regret their decision to undergo the biological sex change”. Doctors should tell families that they were “dealing with a live experiment on adolescents and children”.
Stephen Levine gave evidence that it was medically impossible to turn a girl into a boy and vice versa. Many transgender people, he said, had sexual difficulties and suicide rates were high.
“Contrary to trans persons’ hopes that medicine and society can fulfil their aspiration to become a complete man or woman, this is not biologically attainable ... It is a rare gender-dysphoric young person who has no associated psychiatric diagnosis or symptoms suggesting one.”
“Critical and cautious voices are shouted down as transphobic, hateful and engaging in conversion therapy. Such a climate has created an intimidating and hostile environment where silence and acquiescence are the inevitable consequence."
Prof John Whitehall said "‘puberty blockers’ and cross-sex hormones have structural effects on the brain" and "the rate of suicide in adults is significantly higher after transgendering."
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