Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2024 19:58:51 +0100 From: Eleanor Clifford To: Daniel Zeichner MP Subject: I urge you to oppose the ban on puberty blockers Dear Rt Hon Daniel Zeichner, I am writing as one of your constituents to urge you join Labour MPs Rt Hon Stella Creasy, Rt Hon Nadia Whittome, and Rt Hon Zarah Sultana in opposition to Rt Hon Wes Streeting's intention to extend the outgoing government's "emergency" ban on the use of puberty blockers to treat transgender children. The primary rationale given for the ban is that there is insufficient evidence to merit its use. This is debatable, but irrelevant, as banning medications due to a lack of supporting evidence is simply not how medicine is done -- medications are routinely prescribed "off-label", many of which have far less evidence than puberty blockers for their use. Perhaps more importantly, the only way to _gain_ evidence is to prescribe the medications to more people. The rhetoric of puberty blockers being "irreversible" must also be directly challenged. Regardless of the numerous arguments disproving the supposed irreversibility, what certainly _is_ irreversible is puberty itself. Given the extraordinarily high 98% rate of trans children on puberty blockers who continue on to further gender-affirming care, I hardly think it can be justified that we should subject the 98 to an irreversible and unwanted outcome, including a much higher rate of suicide and self-harm[1] in order to protect the 2 from a much more reversible outcome. Thank you for your time, I hope to hear back from you. Yours sincerely, Eleanor [1]: https://goodlawproject.org/rise-of-deaths-young-trans-people/

Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2024 13:46:41 +0000 (UTC) From: Daniel Zeichner MP To: Eleanor Clifford

Dear Eleanor,

Thank you for contacting me about puberty blockers.

The Health Secretary has acknowledged anxieties about the decision to continue the ban on the prescription of puberty blockers for the treatment of gender dysphoria, as well as reaffirming his commitment to improve the quality of, and access to, healthcare for trans people.

He laid out that the decision was taken as the Cass Review found there was not enough evidence about the long-term impact of puberty blockers for gender incongruence to know whether they are safe or not, nor which children might benefit from them.

The Health Secretary has said that he is treading cautiously in this area, as he believe the safety of children must come first.

I assure you I will take into account the points you have raised and pass them along to colleagues.

Thank you again for contacting me.

Best wishes,
Daniel Zeichner

Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:01:04 +0100 From: Eleanor Clifford To: Daniel Zeichner MP Dear Rt Hon Zeichner, Thank you for your time and your response. With respect to the Cass Review, I would like to further draw your attention to the damning concerns raised in the briefing by Trans Actual, which you can find here: https://transactual.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/TransActual-Briefing-on-Cass-Review.pdf The following two paragraphs, for instance, may be of interest: "[NHS England] barred trans people from being part of the Cass Review core team, while advocates of conversion practices were allowed to be part of the core team." "Further, the Report criticises the quality of evidence that WPATH (the international body which develops and monitors standards in trans healthcare worldwide) relies upon. No international evidence was considered good enough." The full briefing contains yet more strong evidence that the Cass Review simply does not meet sufficient standards of integrity, rigour, and evidence-based medicine to be used as the basis of any government policy. Yours sincerely, Eleanor