English trans care clinic shuts down - deemed unsafe for patients

The decision to close the Tavistock clinic follows an independent and ongoing review of the business.

The pointed out shortcomings consist, among other things, in extreme waiting times, lack of documentation and unsafe treatments.

One of the most controversial issues concerns hormone treatments for children.

The report states that it is unclear whether the treatment helps the patients.

The decision to close is welcomed by psychotherapist Marcus Evans, formerly employed at Tavistock.

- We do things with young people's bodies that have long-term consequences, but there is an alarming lack of research, he says to SVT.

The clinic, which has been the only one in England and Wales, is to be replaced by new regional clinics linked to children's hospitals.

- You have to re-establish contact with youth psychiatry, says Evans.

Risky treatment

Mikael Landén is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Gothenburg and was an expert in a government investigation into hormone treatment in children.

He believes that the situation in Sweden is similar to that in England.

In both countries, the number of people seeking treatment for gender dysphoria has increased sharply.

The group that has increased the most are teenage girls, who have experienced gender dysphoria later in life and often have other psychiatric problems.

Both the National Board of Health and Welfare and Mikael Landén have come to the conclusion that the state of research regarding the benefit of hormone treatments is very uncertain.

- However, we know that there are risks.

When you then have to weigh benefit against risk and we have no known benefit, it becomes difficult to recommend this treatment, says Mikael Landén.

- I think you should do as in the UK, that you take a step back and say, "this went wrong, now we're going to change".

"Worse for the patients"

He believes that care has not taken sufficient account of other factors behind the well-being of those seeking care.

- They have neglected to treat autism, ADHD, anxiety problems and other things that may be behind it.

If you put everything under one hat and ignore everything else, you make it worse for the patients, he says.

The National Board of Health and Welfare changed its recommendation for hormone treatments this spring.

They should only be given in exceptional cases or within the framework of research studies, according to the new recommendation.