Wellington April 13th 2024
Please refer to our article - Correcting the homework for a guide to the misinformation published by PATHA and InsideOUT.
Speak Up for Women welcome the findings of the final Cass Review report into gender identity services for children and adolescents in the United Kingdom. The independent review, led by Senior Paediatrician Dame Hilary Cass, includes an analysis of scientific literature on the effects and outcomes of social and medical transition of children and adolescents with gender issues. It follows on from the interim report issued in 2022, which called for the closure of the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in London.
That report and other subsequent correspondence between Dame Hilary and the NHS can be found here.
The Cass review highlights the lack of sound evidence for the prescription of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for young people presenting with gender issues. It also points out that there is insufficient evidence of any benefits of social transition, but clear risk of creating the persistence of an identity that would have in all likelihood resolved.
These findings represent a clear refutation of the model known as Gender Affirming Care, where a presenting child’s gender identity is accepted by clinicians without question.
The Cass review reported that the population of gender dysphoric children had high rates of autism, trauma, and other mental health problems. She also noted that there was a higher rate of same sex attraction in this clinical population and acknowledged the social influences on these young people, including on-line pornography, social media and peer pressure.
The report points out that ‘social contagion’ is the most hotly contested explanation for the exponential rise in the number of teenage girls experiencing gender incongruence.
We contacted the Hon Dr Shane Reti and the Hon Matt Doocey in March of this year, outlining our concerns and providing them with information on the NHS changes to the way puberty blockers can be prescribed, and the leaked WPATH files.
We now call upon the above Ministers to seek an enquiry into the adoption of Gender Affirming Care for children and adolescents with gender identity issues in New Zealand. This model has now been all but discredited by the Cass Review Final Report.
We also call upon them to remove the funding and contract for The Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) to continue to operate as an authority on gender identity healthcare in New Zealand.
PATHA continues to reference and endorse WPATH despite concerns with the information and methods championed by them, and they have publicly denounced the Cass Review.
Their claims of a lack of representation and clinical input from transgender and non-binary experts can be easily refuted - please see this article.
The Cass Review systematic guideline review (table 1) gave PATHA’s existing guidelines a score of 149/600, the second lowest score out of 21 assessed.
Children have been utterly let down and the Cass Review final report is not just a wake-up call for the NHS, but extends to all countries, including New Zealand, who have adopted without question, the model of gender affirming care. This has been allowed to happen aided and abetted by the media, politicians, childcare professionals and all adults who cheered this experiment with children on with no questions asked: it has been the failure of society as a whole to safeguard the health and welfare of children.