Scotland hands unprecedented power to trans patients

[mephisto5]

The big news from Scotland today is all about gay marriage. But last week, the Scottish government quietly unveiled an equally important move.

The new NHS Scotland Gender Reassignment Protocol will have a massive impact upon those who seek a medical transition. It dramatically cuts the time required for “real life experience” prior to surgery,

Comments

[ladypolitik]

Will allow the source for now; just update with new links as news develops.

[mephisto5]

Wilco.

[poetic_pixie_13]

Eeeeeeee. This sounds fantastic. =D

I hate the “real life experience” bullshit. It's like, sure, it's totally safe to present as the gender you id all the time without hormones or surgery or any of the other myriad of things that help you pass and hopefully protect against transphobic assholes. It's not like the cops don't routinely ignore harassment, assault and even murder of trans folks or participate in it themselves. Nope. It's peachy keen. /rant

This is awesome news, though. Just, yes. I personally am really excited that kids 16 and up can get assessed. We need to stop invalidating the expression and experiences of trans kids. Sure, kids fuck around with gender as much as adults. But that doesn't mean that trans kids don't exist or that they'll 'grow out of it.'

[mephisto5]

Yeah, hopefully having a an example to point at will cause GICs in the rest of the country to up their game as well. The one in York, for example, has a 1-in-1-out policy, so it can take four years to evan get a first appointment.

[oudeteron]

Yep, I hate when the "real life experience" before any treatment is demanded so fucking much for these exact reasons. Hopefully this will send a clue.

[tabaqui]

WOW.
Yay, Scotland, good on you! Hope this becomes a trend.

[psychicherz]

Interesting article, OP, ty.

children and young people under age 16 are entitled to child and adolescent specialist assessment and treatment as per the relevant section of the WPATH Standards of Care.

Does this mean that under 16s will have access to blockers or not?

[mephisto5]

You can get blockers from age 12 and HRT from age 16 at the moment on the NHS (age for blockers was lowered from 16 to 12 in 2011), however you have to be referred to Tavistock clinic. I do not know whether the age threshold for blockers has been lowered further, sorry, as I haven't read the latest WPATH Standards of Care recently.

I think it may be possible to start younger if you go private, but I am not sure.

[fornikate]

that's so great.