Category: Global

NHS to launch first service for trans patients who want to return to birth gender

The NHS is to launch its first ever service for transgender patients wanting to return to the gender they were born as.

The move comes in the wake of the Cass Review, an independent report into transgender services, which found that children were being hurried down “affirmative” pathways involving powerful drugs and medical interventions.

The review made a series of recommendations to the NHS, including to provide care for people who had changed their minds after transitioning, and warned health leaders not to use the same medics previously involved in their care.

Source: NHS to launch first service for trans patients who want to return to birth gender

How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone? | The Free Press

Planned Parenthood was founded a century ago to promote birth control. Today, its nearly 600 clinics nationwide make it the largest single provider of abortion, contraception, reproductive care, and sex education in the U.S. It has also, in less than a decade, become the country’s leading provider of gender transition hormones for young adults, according to insurance claim data.

Hineman, who went from identifying as “nonbinary” to “agender” to “trans” over the course of a year, now considers herself a “detransitioner”—someone who, if possible, has returned to living as their birth sex, often with medical side effects.

Today, reported exclusively in The Free Press, she is a plaintiff in the first detransitioner lawsuit against Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In the medical malpractice suit, filed in April, she’s seeking unspecified damages for negligence and failure to obtain informed consent from all the health providers—including those at Planned Parenthood—who facilitated her medical transition: from therapists who “encouraged” her desire to change genders, to the plastic surgeon who removed her breasts after a superficial consult when she turned 19, to the nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood who wrote Hineman the prescription for testosterone. (In June, Planned Parenthood filed its answer to the complaint, disputing Hineman’s claims.)

She joins more than a dozen young people who, in separate lawsuits across the country, are alleging medical malpractice by institutions such as Kaiser Permanente as well as individual practitioners, and are seeking compensation for the harm they claim has been done to them.

Her suit comes as the U.S. is increasingly alone in championing hormonal and surgical interventions to swiftly transition gender-distressed young people. A growing list of European countries, including Sweden, Finland, and the UK, are restricting these sometimes irreversible treatments for young people and favoring an approach that encourages therapy to address all the causes of a patient’s distress.

In response, about two dozen Republican-led states have passed laws restricting this treatment for minors.

Trading one biological sex hormone for the other has a multitude of profound impacts: on metabolism, on risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke, on bone health, on mood stability, on cognition, and on sexual function and fertility. Female sex organs thrive on estrogen, which the ovaries cease to produce under the sway of testosterone. After a few years, atrophy may affect the entire reproductive tract.

Planned Parenthood’s materials for clinicians state atrophy can begin within just 3–6 months of exposure. But on the brief patient consent form—it’s about three pages long—that both Hineman and Anna signed, this was referred to only as “genital dryness.”

Dr. Nicole Chaisson said that side effects are part of the conversation, but acknowledged that some may go unmentioned, saying it would be wrong to point patients to things that might happen 10 or 20 years down the road when “they’re having lifesaving care right now.”

Chaisson is referring to a claim often repeated by gender practitioners: that without access to “affirming” treatments, young people will commit suicide. This is a threat that’s been commonly held over parents reluctant to approve transition for their child.

Fortunately, there is now good evidence to refute this dire claim. Researchers in Finland recently published the largest study to date looking at suicide in gender-distressed patients and found that suicide is rare, and the greatest predictor of it is previously diagnosed psychiatric conditions.

Hineman now regrets that she put off college to transition, and spent her life savings, about $9,000, on a mastectomy. She has gone public because she wants young people like herself, their parents, and the providers who are pushing ideology over good care to know that there are safe and humane ways to address the kind of distress she suffered. “The answers are not just transition or suicide. There are ways to work through these feelings without altering your body,” she says.

As for Planned Parenthood, she says, “Honestly, I want them to focus on women’s health. That’s what they exist for.”

Source: How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone? | The Free Press

We need to talk about how some men are ruining the gym experience for women

A jaw-dropping 70 per cent of women have experienced a negative interaction in the gym that has left them feeling uncomfortable – at the hands of a man, according to Fitrated. Women have been inclined to accept this as the norm and alter their workout routines accordingly to avoid harassment.

From being watched, unwanted flirtation, mansplaining, being followed, body criticisms, physical contact and sexual harassment, the concerning catalogue of negative experiences has driven women to avoid certain areas of the gym – or quit altogether. What’s worse, this type of behaviour is becoming increasingly normalised with a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude and very few consequences given by the gyms themselves.

Source: We need to talk about how some men are ruining the gym experience for women

High Court judge in the UK upholds the government ban on puberty blockers | AP News

A High Court judge has upheld the British government’s emergency ban on puberty blockers. Justice Beverley Lang says in a ruling that a review commissioned by England’s National Health Service found “very substantial risks and very narrow benefits” of the treatment.

The group TransActual and a youth who cannot be named under a court order sought to challenge the decision of former Health secretary Victoria Atkins to ban prescribing hormones that can pause the development of puberty. They are sometimes prescribed to help children with gender dysphoria by giving them more time to consider options that could include gender reassignment.

The judge threw out the challenge, saying the ban was lawful. The ban restricts the NHS from providing the medication outside of clinical trials and prevents it from being prescribed by private suppliers.

The NHS stopped prescribing puberty blockers last year, saying there was not enough evidence about the benefits and harms.

Source: High Court judge in the UK upholds the government ban on puberty blockers | AP News

Imane Khelif: Olympics should reintroduce sex testing in wake of Imane Khelif boxing row, UN adviser says | World News | Sky News

The intervention from Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, comes as the Paris Games is embroiled in a debate about dangers from testosterone advantage in women’s events.

Ms Alsalem has expressed concern that Italian boxer Angela Carini was exposed to violence based on her sex during a women’s bout against Imane Khelif, who it has been claimed failed a gender eligibility test.

“We know that there are simple, efficient, dignified ways of testing sex,” says Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.

Ms Alsalem advocates using cheek swabs to test for sex.

Source: Imane Khelif: Olympics should reintroduce sex testing in wake of Imane Khelif boxing row, UN adviser says | World News | Sky News

Blind Eye: We Should Heed UN Report Warning Against Australia Becoming A ‘Pimp State” – New Matilda

Calling prostitution ‘sex work’ doesn’t make it less harmful. Michelle Panayi explains why Australia must take seriously calls from a high-ranking United Nations expert for a rethink on the way we allow society to treat many women and young girls.

Australia must act on this warning given that prostitution is mostly called “sex work” which normalises it, and full decriminalisation or legalisation of prostitution exists in the majority of states and territories.

The Special Rapporteur’s report on Prostitution and Violence Against Women and Girls highlights that prostitution is a system of violence which reduces women and girls to commodities and says in effect that all women have a price.

In addition, the report says that payment and/or promise of payment is the most visible sign of a person being purchased rather than freely giving consent, and that many survivors referred to it as “paid rape”.

Furthermore, violence, poverty, manipulation, lack of physical and mental safety, discrimination, and lack of real alternatives serve as coercion. And international law has established the issue of “irrelevance of consent” within the framework of trafficking crimes and the exploitation and prostitution of others.

The Special Rapporteur also highlights that the term “sex work” wrongly depicts prostitution as an activity as dignified and worthy as any other work, fails to take into account the serious human rights violations involved, and “gaslights” victims and their experiences.

Countries that have legalised or fully decriminalised prostitution have, according to the report, increases in the demand for prostitution, recorded higher rates of sex trafficking, violence, abuse and rape and increased prospects for money laundering and drug trafficking. I add that the 2015 NSW parliamentary inquiry into brothel regulation found that a substantial section of the industry had gone underground under full decriminalisation.

The Special Rapporteur rightly asserts that the equal participation of women in society is impossible to achieve when prostitution is normalised as it dehumanises women and girls, and is fundamentally based on unequal power relations between women and men.

[T]he perceived right of men to purchase a sex act normalizes the violence inflicted on women through prostitution. It also reinforces sexist views including that women are simply receptacles for men’s sexual “needs”. As such there is also a strong correlation between men’s use of prostitution and rape.

It is the Equality or Nordic model as it sometimes called which exists in countries such as Sweden, Iceland, France, Ireland, and Canada, that the Special Rapporteur’s report says should be adopted by all nations.

This holistic model decriminalises prostituted persons and focuses on funding specialist exit programs to help them leave this industry and addresses the underlying causes of prostitution. And it criminalises the sexual act buyers, pimps, and brothel owners.

The Special Rapporteur’s report makes numerous other findings and recommendations that States should adopt. This includes that pornography is filmed prostitution and its consumption is linked to male violence against women and children, such as rape. And so countries should criminalise the possession, production, and hosting of it.

Source: Blind Eye: We Should Heed UN Report Warning Against Australia Becoming A ‘Pimp State” – New Matilda

The Biological Basis of Sex Differences in Athletic Performance: Consensus Statement for the American College of Sports Medicine

Biological sex is a primary determinant of athletic performance because of fundamental sex differences in anatomy and physiology dictated by sex chromosomes and sex hormones. Adult men are typically stronger, more powerful, and faster than women of similar age and training status. Thus, for athletic events and sports relying on endurance, muscle strength, speed, and power, males typically outperform females by 10%–30% depending on the requirements of the event. These sex differences in performance emerge with the onset of puberty and coincide with the increase in endogenous sex steroid hormones, in particular testosterone in males, which increases 30-fold by adulthood, but remains low in females. The primary goal of this consensus statement is to provide the latest scientific knowledge and mechanisms for the sex differences in athletic performance.

. . .

Several longitudinal studies in transgender women show a reduction in hemoglobin/hematocrit (the latter equivalent to cisgender women after ~4 months), and lean body mass, muscle cross-sectional area, and muscle strength, but are typically stronger than cisgender women (387) even 14 yr after initiation of GAHT (388). For example, nonathletic transgender women who underwent estrogen treatment for 12 months decreased muscle volume by 5% but maintained muscle strength (384).

. . .

Individuals with 46,XY DSD who are born with female or ambiguous genitalia and functioning testes, such as in the case of 5-alpha reductase deficiency, will produce testosterone concentrations in the typical male range (9,325) (Fig. 2). Except in cases of androgen resistance (CAIS), the individual will respond to testosterone made during puberty and adult life with increased virilization and muscle development (9,325). The prevalence of 46,XY DSD is estimated to be ~140 times greater (7.1/1000 vs 0.05/1000) among elite women athletes than the general population (18,404). These findings, together with an increased occurrence of mild forms of hyperandrogenism (PCOS) among elite female athletes (393), support an advantageous role of endogenous hyperandrogenism for athletic performance in women.

Source: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

International Olympic Committee Was Warned About Male Boxers, World Boxing Organization Vice President Says – Reduxx

A Hungarian sports official has come out and stated that Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is not female. István Kovács, the European Vice President of the World Boxing Organization and former Secretary General of the International Boxing Association, told Hungarian press that he had warned the International Olympic Committee about males participating in women’s boxing as early as 2022, but that nothing was done.

In a shocking statement made to Magyar Nemzet yesterday, Kovács confirmed the speculation surrounding the Algerian boxer, adding that it had been known as early as 2022 that Khelif was biologically male.

“The problem was not with the level of Khelif’s testosterone, because that can be adjusted nowadays, but with the result of the gender test, which clearly revealed that the Algerian boxer is biologically male,” Kovács said in an interview with Magyar Nemzet, adding that a total of five boxers had been examined including Khelif by the International Boxing Association, and all of them “were indeed men.”

Kovács asserted that he personally reported shocking result immediately to the International Olympics Committee, “but as unbelievable as it is, they have not responded to this to this day.” The retired world champion boxer also commented that he recently spoke with former women’s world champion Mária Kovács, who bitterly remarked that in modern women’s boxing, “there is a 20 percent chance that one of the athletes will suffer a testicular injury.”

Male athletes with DSDs are sometimes actively sought out by national coaches because of their tremendous “natural” advantage over biological females.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, male runners with DSDs won all three top spots in the Women’s 800m race.

Source: International Olympic Committee Was Warned About Male Boxers, World Boxing Organization Vice President Says – Reduxx

World Boxing boss Boris Van Der Vorst addresses gender issues as Angela Carini quits mid-fight against Imane Khelif – ABC News

Khelif won her(sic) first Paris bout on Thursday when her(sic) Italian opponent, Angela Carini, emotionally quit after just 46 seconds and a few punches.

Even though Carini said she wasn’t making a political statement about Khelif, Carini’s tearful abandonment of the bout became a worldwide sensation on social media and in Western culture wars.

Criticism of the two boxers is based partly in the policies and decisions of the IBA, which has been out of the Olympic movement since 2019 after years of IOC concerns about its leadership, integrity and financial transparency.

The IBA disqualified Khelif from its world championships because of what it said were elevated levels of testosterone, and it stripped Lin of a bronze medal because it claimed she(sic) failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.

Source: World Boxing boss Boris Van Der Vorst addresses gender issues as Angela Carini quits mid-fight against Imane Khelif – ABC News