In a significant move undermining the current medical and ideological orthodoxy on gender dysphoria, certain hospitals in Sweden have phased out the prescribing of puberty blockers to under 16s.
The move comes in the wake of growing medical concern about the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as well as the landmark Keira Bell ruling in the British High Court which challenged the notion that children can fully comprehend the implications and risks of such treatment.
From last month Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute and various other hospitals have discontinued the prescription of hormonal therapy to children under the age of 16 while placing medical and parental safeguards on those between 16-18 attaining the treatment.
This is not just driven by the Bell judgement, in Sweden itself there has been a growing chorus of medical voices opining against the nation’s permissive attitude on underage gender therapy. In a 2019 study commissioned by government health experts, serious concern was aired about the long term health effects of hormone therapy on children.
In a statement issued by the Karolinska Institute the medical reasoning for their decision was laid out.
“These treatments are potentially fraught with extensive and irreversible adverse consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk, and thrombosis. This makes it challenging to assess the risk / benefit for the individual patient, and even more challenging for the minors and their guardians to be in a position of an informed stance regarding these treatments.”
Under the new medical regime those already receiving hormone therapy under the age of 18 will be evaluated as to whether to continue with their treatment or not. Henceforth those between 16 and 18 will be examined on whether they require the therapy and if they comprehend the implications with a prerequisite that a medical board approves the choice.
Between the years 2008 and 2018 there was a 1,500% uptick in mostly teenage girls undergoing gender therapy in Sweden. As late as 2018 the ruling Social Democratic Party, under pressure from the country’s omnipresent trans lobby, reduced the minimum age for sex reassignment from 18 to 15, removed parental vetoes and brought down the age whereby children could legally change gender to 12.
The tide began to turn owing to the work of journalists such as Malou von Sivers as well as the investigative TV show “Uppdrag Granskning” which broadcasted some of the harsher realities of those detransitioning. Similarly the case of Jennifer Ring, a Swedish trans woman who hung himself following what appeared to be a misdiagnosis for gender dysphoria rather than what was likely psychosis, helped open the floodgates on public and medical disquiet.
Closer to home the Irish legislation on trans issues is arguably the world’s most permissive in the wake of the Gender Recognition Act in 2014. With Irish hospitals referring children en masse to British hospitals for assessment and treatment the issue is largely outsourced. However Crumlin’s Children’s Hospital reported treating under 20 child patients in 2020 for gender dysphoria, often utilising hormone therapy.
In Ireland the drug of choice for hormone therapy is a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, a medication taken primarily by means of a regular injection. While the HSE has kept relatively silent regarding the British and Swedish decisions the Irish Times reported on comfort letters being provided to Crumlin Children’s Hospital to protect itself against legal claims.
The Burkean has previously reported on the rather ambiguous funding of our indigenous trans lobby at home, it appears a corner may gradually be turned on what the trans lobby has gotten away with.
Across Europe the bubble is bursting on the latitude granted to the international trans lobby during the 2010s. While the trans mafia shields itself from criticism through the rigid implementation of speech codes the sheer scale of the tragedies and undeniable medical evidence piles higher and higher each day. As evidenced by the recent moves in Sweden and Britain that the trans mania has potentially hit a high watermark. We can only pray this stroke of sanity appears here.
State sponsored child abuse. A ticking time bomb of psychological problems for years to come.