LBC: trans healthcare, with Tom Swarbrick
Tom Swarbrick is a capable interviewer and he had done his homework. The conversation moved fast, covered a lot of ground, and most of what was put to me had the shape of evidence: studies quoted, reviews cited, judgements read aloud. That is worth taking seriously, because it is exactly what makes these arguments land with people who are trying to think clearly about a genuinely difficult subject.
What I want to do on this page is work through each of those claims in order. Some of them contain real findings that have been stripped of context until they mean the opposite of what the original authors intended. Some rest on sources that sound authoritative but are not. Some are simply wrong. And a few raise questions that are worth asking honestly, which is a different thing from the conclusions they were being used to support.
I went on the programme because these questions deserve straight answers rather than avoidance. The page below is where I give them.
Moments worth watching
Each one is about half a minute, and has a page of its own.
The myths, answered
What was put to me in this conversation, and what is actually true.
Puberty blockers banned after Cass Review because effects unknown
See the answerPrescribing puberty blockers is justified only by how a child feels
See the answerA 2023 study shows puberty blockers cause lasting bone density loss
See the answerChildren cannot meaningfully consent to puberty blockers
See the answerDeeper dives
Some of these claims deserve more than a paragraph, so each one has a film and a full piece behind it.
What this looks like in a life
The studio argument is one thing. These are people it actually happens to.
