A mother taking a gender clinic to court to prevent it giving sex-change drugs to her autistic daughter says she wants to prevent youngsters making ‘catastrophic’ decisions that they live to regret.
The woman, who can only be called ‘Mrs A’ for legal reasons, fears her 16-year-old daughter will be fast-tracked for transgender medical treatment once she is seen by clinicians at the Gender Identity Development Service in London.
Mrs A is one of two women taking the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs GIDS, to the High Court to stop it prescribing the powerful ‘puberty blocker’ drugs to those under the age of 18.
Some experts say they give children time to reflect on whether to press ahead with further treatment. But studies show the vast majority of those who take them move on to ‘cross-sex hormones’ such as testosterone for those born female.
Warning of the implications of taking the drugs, Mrs A said: ‘If you start a child on puberty blockers – and nigh-on 100 per cent of them go on to take cross-sex hormones – then you are almost putting them on cross-sex hormones there and then. You are setting them on the path of medical transition.
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