Mother battles ex-husband in court to ensure their 15-year-old would have to wait until 18 before starting treatment to change gender
- Mother wants 15-year-old child to have treatment under ‘more cautious’ NHS
- But the child’s father wants permission for a private clinic to treat their child
- Unlike NHS, private clinics will prescribe puberty blockers to young patients
A mother is battling her former husband in the High Court over whether their teenage child should have medical treatment to change gender.
The child’s mother wants the 15-year-old to only be treated by the NHS because it takes a ‘cautious approach’ and rarely now prescribes powerful puberty-blocker drugs to youngsters amid concern about the long-term health effects.
However, the father wants his child to be allowed to go to a private clinic where young patients are still routinely given the controversial drugs, which are used to stop the onset of physical changes into adulthood.
The mother won the first stage of the legal case after a judge ruled that her child must not be treated outside of the NHS until turning 16.
Now the couple are set for another court showdown before the child’s next birthday early next year.
The mother wants the court order to be extended so that the child would have to wait until turning 18 to decide on starting medical treatment to change gender.
A mother is battling her former husband in the High Court over whether their teenage child should have medical treatment to change gender
The case, which will be heard in the Family Division of the High Court, is covered by very strict restrictions preventing the media from reporting any details that may lead to the identification of the child or parents.
READ MORE: ‘Being trans or non-binary is a new sub-culture… but we risk raising a nation of chemically castrated children’: Doctor who spent 12 years working with vulnerable patients at the Tavistock warns over gender ideology
Former Tavistock Trust Dr Az Hakeem (pictured) has said Britain could turn into a nation of chemically castrated children if trans and gender theory is allowed to fester unchallenged
The mother, who can only be referred to as ‘Ms A’, is attempting to raise £20,000 in online donations to pay for a top legal team to fight her case.
A judge agreed on a form of wording she can use on a crowdfunding website to raise the money.
‘I, Ms A, am the mum of a beautiful, clever, funny, gender-non- conforming teenager who, believes they are the opposite sex,’ she states.
‘My ex-husband and I disagree on whether our child should have access to medical gender treatment outside the NHS.’
She explains that she wants her child to remain under the NHS because it is taking a more ‘cautious approach’ to treating children who are confused about their gender.
New guidelines introduced in June mean NHS gender clinics for young people aged 17 and under will focus on psychological therapies rather than puberty blockers, which can only be prescribed to under-16s as part of clinical research.
The guidance followed an overhaul of NHS child gender services in England, with regional centres now set to replace the much-criticised Tavistock clinic after a damning NHS review by Dr Hilary Cass said the clinic was ‘not safe’.
Ms A said young patients are getting round the new NHS safeguards by going to private clinics, where they can access ‘life-changing and potentially irreversible’ treatments such as puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones.
The prescription of puberty-blockers to young people is controversial due to the lack of clinical knowledge about the medication’s long-term effect on children’s brain and bone development.
Cross-sex hormones, which can cause infertility, trigger the physical process of transitioning by increasing hair growth and muscle mass in females or breast development in males.
Ms A said: ‘I want to ensure that my child receives appropriate care and treatment in accordance with the new approach of the NHS and will therefore seek to extend the order until the age of 18.’
A damning NHS review found the child gender services at The Tavistock Clinic were ‘not safe’
She said she is aiming to raise £20,000 to pay for ‘specialist legal advice’ in the hope that her case ‘will not only be of benefit to my child but to other children and parents in this position.’
Paul Conrathe, senior consultant solicitor at Sinclairs Law, which is representing the mother, said: ‘This case raises important issues about the safe treatment of children with gender dysphoria, and especially whether treatment risks being left in the hands of unregulated and profit-making organisations, rather than under the umbrella of NHS protection.’
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