Thread by @JamesEsses

THREAD WARNING - The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care.

I have just read Version 8 of these standards, released last week. It is one of the most shocking indictments of ideology infecting medicine that I have ever come across:
(1/13)

The guidelines are filled with ideological language. Irreversible medication and surgery is “gender-affirming health care”. Terms like “cisgender” and the factually inaccurate “sex assigned at birth” are used. Clinics are told to implement “gender neutral toilets”.
(2/13)

Safeguarding of children is no more. Age limits for puberty blockers, hormones or surgery are removed, as long as a child has reached ‘Tanner Stage 2’ (which can be as young as 9). There’s no requirement for a child to have taken hormones prior to surgery “if not desired”.
(3/13)

Extremely concerning is that “chest masculinization surgery” (i.e. double mastectomy) “can be considered in minors”.

WPATH state that “vaginoplasty” may be considered for under 18 year olds.

Hormone treatment is recommended even though it can cause “infertility”.
(4/13)

Doctors are told to provide education to children on “chest binding” and “genital tucking” to provide “comfort” and “lower rates of misgendering”.

This is even though the former can cause pain, infection and fracture and the latter can cause decreased sperm concentration. (5/13)

Parents are alienated. Healthcare professionals are advised to “challenge” parents unsupportive of medical transition.

They are recommended to prescribe hormone treatment for children without parental involvement, if such involvement would be “harmful or unnecessary”.
(6/13)

There is what looks like a shopping list of surgery recommended for ‘trans’ people, including:

-Body contouring
-Voice surgery
-Hair transplant
-Jaw augmentation
-Liposuction
-Brow lift
-Lip shortening
-Calf implant
-Mastectomy, Hysterectomy, Vaginoplasty, Phalloplasty.
(7/13)

Mental health care is abandoned. It is recommended that therapy or counselling is “never mandatory” before undertaking medication or surgery, including for children.

Therapists are told to not impose narratives or preconceptions, yet they must be “gender affirming”.
(8/13)

Mental illness is deemed of lesser importance. Clinicians are advised that not all mental illness “can or should be resolved” prior to medication or surgery.

We are told there is no basis to withhold hormones simply because a child has a neurodevelopmental condition.
(9/13)

There is an entire chapter on ‘Eunuchs’ who are “assigned male at birth and wish to eliminate masculine physical features or genitals”.

These individuals who seek “castration” are deemed to fall under the “gender diverse umbrella”.
(10/13)

WPATH recommends that staff who provide care to people resident in prisons or psychiatric hospitals should support them with “gender-affirming surgical treatment…when sought by the individual, without undue delay”.
(11/13)

Irreversible medication and surgery are recommended, even though “the number of studies is still low”, “there are few outcome studies that follow youth into adulthood” and “no clinical studies have reported on profiles of adolescents who regret their initial decision”
(12/13)

Ideology has infected medicine and the safeguarding of our most vulnerable children.

We must speak out about this. The stakes are far too high.

Link to the full document is here - tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.108…
(13/13)

I am told that Susie Green from Mermaids is on the group responsible for revisions to the Standards of Care.

To note - up until yesterday (when an online correction was posted), there were minimal ages recommended:

Hormones - 14
Mastectomy - 15
Vaginoplasty - 17

Still far too young but better than nothing.

Why were these ages completely thrown out the window?
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…