ABOUT US - Why did we form Biology in Medicine?

I had long realised that gender medicine was not changing people's sex, but it got to the point that I was seeing so much harm.

We formed Biology in Medicine driven by a desperation at the harms that cross sex interventions are doing to the poor souls caught up in it:

- The young student with autism traits who couldn’t fit into the male ideal of the rugby club, who wants to be called Rose and is taking spironolactone in the hopes he will grow some breasts;

- The girl aged 13 whose mother is helping her source testosterone but who is only about 4’9 (145cm) tall, already growing dark hair on her face;

- The beautiful 23 year old student who has stopped taking testosterone having realised it was a bad phase in her life but it is too late because she has lost her breasts and she has a deep voice;

- The transman (trans identifying female), in a relationship with a woman, finding it easier to be accepted in a traditional English town if one of them looks like a man.

For me these are crimes that our society and the medical community has wreaked on these vulnerable people. Society has lied to them, saying that of course they can or should change sex and that they will be happier with themselves. My profession is brought into disrepute with every single cross sex intervention that is carried out or prescribed, and I want no part in it.

This is why Biology in Medicine is so important: we must treat people according to the best evidence for what will help them cope with themselves, while keeping their options open for the future, based on their needs rather than their wants. For people with gender dysphoria or gender-questioning they need help to come to an understanding of themselves, an understanding of their beliefs and an understanding about what can and cannot be done, because going ahead with treatments can wreck their body.

For example, it cannot be the right approach for any young person to be given cross sex hormones or surgical interventions while there is psychological distress, particularly the normal distress that we all go through when we move from childhood through the turbulence of adolescence to adulthood, a stage that lasts many years, maybe even beyond the age of 25. This is a time of profound change, physically and psychologically, when we learn to come to terms with ourselves, something that for many of us takes a lifetime.

Let’s not have another generation of scarred bodies that leads to a lifetime of regret.