A former governor of the country’s only NHS gender identity service for children says ‘many’ young people attempt suicide after regretting sex change surgery.
Dr Marcus Evans, who worked at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust accused his former managers of following ‘ideological beliefs’ on gender that became so ‘weaponised’ and ‘politicised’ that they lost clinical value.
Dr Evans spoke out following a large-scale NHS review into the use of transitioning drugs for children which called into question the clinical practice of gender changing medicine.
The review, by Dr Hiliary Cass, and published last week, found ‘no good evidence’ to support the growing use of prescribed hormones to under-18’s to halt puberty or transition to the opposite sex. Thousands of children have received puberty blockers on the NHS since 2011, and referrals to Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) increased 100 fold during the last decade to 9,000. While the service was closed in 2022 following widespread criticism, similar work with children continued in two regional hubs.
Consultant psychotherapist Marcus Evans, 62, who worked at the north London Clinic, said he watched children with “complex psychological problems” being “fast tracked” through a medical response which was more like a “customer service” than a “clinical service.”
He said many children treated by the service went on to have powerful and irreversible sex changing surgery with devastating consequences.
His concern was based on his experiences at a different job running a clinic for people who had attempted suicide.
He said: “I had come across false clinical claims the majority of people make a successful transition. In a previous job I used to see people who had reassignment surgery thinking this would resolve their problems. And it didn’t so they would take an overdose and end up in hospital.”
Dr Evans raised his concerns but says he resigned from the board of governors at the Tavistock and Portman trust in 2019 because his concerns about children were ignored.
He said: “The clinicians working in the gender identity service were very influenced by some of the ‘trans’ charities and became ideologically, not clinically driven. The Trust’s services became so politicised. Anyone who tried to have a discussion about it got criticised or called a bigot.”
He said the Cass report should be a “watershed moment” in the way “fragile” and “confused” children who question their gender are treated. However he said it was a scandal that the widespread use of gender changing medicine has continued for so long: “It is an absolute scandal that an experimental treatment on vulnerable children has been allowed to continue for so long. Where was NHS England, where have the Royal College’s been to protect these children? What on earth has been going on?”
Stonewall, which represents LGBTQ+ people stated: “We urge NHS England and policymakers to read and digest the full report and consider Dr Cass’ plea “to remember the children and young people trying to live their lives and the families/ carers and clinicians doing their best to support them. All should be treated with compassion and respect.”
