Do cis people in the UK actually think there has ever been a point at which transgender medicine was widely and routinely available on the NHS?
Guys, it never has. When they exist at all, the services are chronically underfunded with waiting lists that literally stretch for decades.
To a first approximation, if you want to medically transition in the UK, you are on your own, unless you want to fight a war of attrition for years.
TERFs like to pretend that you can easily access NHS gender identity services as if it were just a thing people do.
It appears some people have believed their fairy tales. However badly you think trans people are treated by the medical establishment in the UK, I promise you that the reality is worse, and always has been.
“Children on puberty blockers”. Fucking state of it. There are no children on puberty blockers. Not because they’re trans, anyway.
Totally endorse your summary of the lies, but there is a difference between underfunded and an exercise in bloody-mindedness on the one hand and wholly unavailable on the other. Many of us have no choice but to grit our teeth and grind through the system. Which is as bad as you say.
@Isabel Ruffell I transitioned with a lot of people who tried and were unable to access it.
Even at the peak of trans acceptance in the UK, being able to access ANYTHING depended on your postcode at least, and probably a few other things. Some PCTs as we’re basically refused to refer anyone for anything at all.
At which point, you either had the money to go round them, or you found ways to get it 😞
yes, my first attempt at transitioning was without any guarantee that the local health authority would pay for anything but hormones (and having to persuade the local shrinks to refer me to a GIC at all). I am now in my ninth year of a second attempt. Now that I am relatively close to finishing, I am in a position to make other arrangements, but that wasn't the case earlier. And it is awful that I feel fortunate to have made it so far, but then I conside whatr other folk face.
I basically had to self fund treatment to a certain extent but was incredibly lucky, combined with have a great GP, and being in Wales where they didn’t have a GIC at the time, that surgery was referred directly so I was one of those rare people who went to Heywards Heath. My partner did not so I used what I had saved, expecting I would have to pay, to pay for her. I know plenty who did the exceptionally slow NHS grind. I was just lucky with my circumstances.
I would love to ask a TERF to summarise their achievements in removing healthcare from trans people, and then summarise how easy it is for trans people to get it now. They know, of course they do. It's all doublethink.
If you think the NHS was ever actually giving trans children puberty blockers, then I’m afraid you have fallen for a TERF fairy tale. The NHS has never actually done decent treatment for trans children. news.sky.com/story/children-to…
The decision follows a review after a sharp rise in referrals were recorded at the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which is closing at the end of March.
One of my best friends has a trans daughter, who is just on the point of being prescribed blockers after a battle of about five years. We don't at this point know whether she's sufficiently far along that this will 'only' make it harder to find a sympathetic GP, or a final last-minute defeat after so long waiting.
So yes, even within an awful system, this will make things materially worse for some trans people.
@David Matthewman they’ve always given these drugs to adults. They gave them to me in my 30s.
The issue is that they have pretty much never, as far as I know, given them to trans children for the purposes of arresting puberty.
I think the media narrative of referring to GnRH agonists as “puberty blockers” here is probably not helping any attempt at comprehension. It makes people think that’s all they do. They’re gonadotropin inhibitors, and they are useful after puberty for transition to allow HRT to work unopposed by endogenous hormones.
Now trying to stop them being prescribed for that is their next target, and without invading the privacy of the person you mention, you say it’s been a five year battle.
There’s no point prescribing these drugs before the initial onset of puberty because … well, they don’t do anything.
So five years … puberty is mostly done by then, and you’re
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@David Matthewman they’ve always given these drugs to adults. They gave them to me in my 30s.
The issue is that they have pretty much never, as far as I know, given them to trans children for the purposes of arresting puberty.
I think the media narrative of referring to GnRH agonists as “puberty blockers” here is probably not helping any attempt at comprehension. It makes people think that’s all they do. They’re gonadotropin inhibitors, and they are useful after puberty for transition to allow HRT to work unopposed by endogenous hormones.
Now trying to stop them being prescribed for that is their next target, and without invading the privacy of the person you mention, you say it’s been a five year battle.
There’s no point prescribing these drugs before the initial onset of puberty because … well, they don’t do anything.
So five years … puberty is mostly done by then, and you’re looking at a young adult transition type situation.
For reference, the daughter in question turns 13 soon. And it's not that anyone was trying to give puberty blockers to an eight-year-old, but the battle was to get her the possibility of having them when they would help.
@David Matthewman Ok. Credit to her parents for fighting that battle, and maybe the Tavistock might have considered possibly doing it on a trial basis at some point (“maybe” is doing a lot of work there), but they basically don’t do that, and never have. Their standard mode of operation is to just keep talking until people age out of their service and can join an adult GIC waiting list.
The headline is literally just a reaffirmation of the way the NHS has always behaved. It’s giving the impression that it’s ending a practice of medical intervention for trans kids.
But to end something, it has to have started in the first place.
I was watching the Portuguese election coverage last night. Ignore the Chega TV banner in the top left; they were just rebroadcasting RTP3’s coverage. What struck me was where in the UK we report turnout percentages, in Portugal the media report the opposite: the percentage of voters who stayed at home (abstenção in the bottom right). I wonder if there’s something about the political history of Portugal that makes this so.
@Alisdair Calder McGregor Ooh, that's a good point; I hadn't noticed whether the numbers actually were %ages of the total electorate rather than of those who voted... And annoyingly they're not doing the UK thing of election coverage continuing well into the next day.
Privacy is a basic aspect of human decency. The reason we have curtains and clothes isn't because we have anything to hide, it's because wearing clothes and using curtains when appropriate is simple human decency. The same goes for the choice between postcards and envelopes, and use of encryption in respect of private files and communications.
I know you know, but just giving some concrete examples:
Reasons why people need privacy:
To negotiate business deals To plan and participate in surprise parties To get holiday gifts for family To plan surprise engagements To manage home finances/retirement investments To buy/sell a house and negotiate terms/price
yeah, there’s a big disconnect there between me and some friends. I _hate_ the idea of any company algorithmically “reading” my email, so I refuse to use Gmail and co. Discussing with friends, most of them are in the “who cares?” camp, which boggles my mind! Sadly I’m terrible at explaining why I have such a strong aversion to it, do you know of any “here’s why you might want to care” sort of articles?
I'll give up my privacy, when... Politician's conduct all interactions in public & on the record Politician's publish their tax records, bank statements, shareholdings, w oversight by open forum Politician's don't allow lobbying of any kind All corporations pay their taxes in full, no offshore crap Free healthcare, education, social care for all worldwide When the industrial-miltary complex is dismantled When all wars are abolished & nukes
“So sometimes my roommate, with whom I’ve been paying a mortgage for 10 years and looking after a herd of cats, does me against the wall with a strap on. Do you think I should risk telling her I have feelings for her? I’m pretty sure she’s straight.” reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpd…
So, just in case you needed the heads up - noauthority.social is a fascist server; appears to be a refuge for nazis who got tired of having their previous server, noagenda.social, defederated by literally everyone. I just caught some nazi rando in my replies and after blocking him, hopped over to his timeline to see who he's talking to and it's literally all other fascists from noauthority.social. Strong defederate with extreme prejudice recommendation for admins but it's your life.
Yeah look, one of the two servers I'm on already had them blocked, and this ain't me reaching out to be friends. No matter what we all think of each other and this hashtag, I think we can ALL agree that online nazi servers are something we're all interested in seeing eat the bar. We ain't gotta be friends, and in fact I can assure you it's not gonna happen. I'm just making sure folks know the score; what they want to do about it, is their business. Half y'all got THIS server blocked anyway.
by the name id think its some anarchist server, but no of course the server called 'no authority.social' is all about hosting people who want the most oppressive ""authorities"" possible .. Why wouldn't it??
@Paulos_the_fog Yes, but it doesn't do what most people would think it does. It prevents YOU from seeing all posts, from that instance; as if you muted them all. They can still see and interact with your posts. In fact, it's pretty hard to stop people from SEEING your posts even if you have them blocked; they can just open a new window on a big neutral server like Social. But if you block individually, they can't interact with your posts, which is generally what you want re: nazis.
The actual transcript excerpts from retired Army Lieutenant Colonel David Slater’s dating-site chats with his mystery gf are quite something. It’s as if HAL 9000 were trying to seduce Dave Bowman instead of lock him outside the ship.
Here’s why the NHS were happy to vaccinate me with MMR the other day. From UK govt advice from 2019:
• individuals born between 1970 and 1979 may have been vaccinated against measles and many will have been exposed to mumps and rubella during childhood. However, this age group should be offered MMR wherever feasible, particularly if they are considered to be at high risk of exposure.
• individuals born before 1970 are likely to have had all three natural infections and are less likely to be susceptible. MMR vaccine should be offered to such individuals on request or if they are considered to be at high risk of exposure.
Tl;dr: younger GenX and older Millennials in the UK were likely given inadequate protection against measles and none against mumps and rubella: vaccinate on sight.
Older GenX and boomers: just give them the vaccine if they ask for it.
Yes. I caught measles in around 1960 and had the BCG shot at school in 1967/8 but I’ve never had any protection against Mumps, which seems a bit of an oversight.
I recall that you had whooping cough many months ago, which I was reminded of because I also got it last autumn. Somebody on here told me recently that it was included in the tetanus booster. Research done some years ago shows that people don't need to the tetanus boosters, but I guess whopping cough wasn't part of the study? Anyway, I haven't had that shot in 20 years now and I'm guessing virtually no others adults have either.
@Ghost of Hope The single dose measles vaccine they used in the 70s was not as effective as they’d hoped long term, but to be fair the thing was on the verge of being eradicated and they didn’t think it needed to be.
@Alexandra Lanes Dupuutren's appears to have gone into remission overnight. I guess my body is too busy doing measles things to worry about fucking my hands.
If I were still teaching methods, I could use these boost numbers to illustrate a double barreled question (triple barreled if you add "boosted for survey methods teachers" #sociology )
Look, you don't write 120,000 words of fanfiction set on the Federation-Romulan Neutral Zone without understanding every bit of canonical text written about the Treaty of Algeron.
I haven’t been able to watch any Trek after TNG, some Voyager (sorry, lost in space) and some Enterprise. None of DSN or Discovery.
And since paramount has so utterly failed to deliver Trek, I can’t see myself subscribing to watch Picard or that other thing that produced a musical episode.
It can have phasers and transporters and warp driven starships and still not be Star Trek. Embarrassing. Untenable. Wrong.
I did the written Autism test and included 5x pages of notes detailing the issues with (British) English (spelling, syntax) and the issues with too vague questions that it had.
Because engineering keeps having to fix other damage and isn’t given time to maintain the consoles.
You can’t even go do routine maintenance like degaussing your ship with baryon rays without criminals trying to steal your trilithium resin or commander Hutchison and Data killing you slowly with small talk.
Anxiety is my constant companion. I’m always anxious and it only varies in degrees. It’s been this way my entire life. Nothing really changes that fact.
I try to be aware emotionally and physically which is difficult so when I feel 😬. I used to try to hide it from myself. Mostly because most things I tried didn’t work. Probably those memories were shaped when I was a different person. So if I take my old anxiety’s and acknowledge that happens and I wasn’t so aware I try and be incredibly kinder in general to myself. I also try to see what I was doing before the emotion sets in to process what came before.🧐
I’m pleased to announce that almost all of the episodes of Just Plain Sense from Jan 2009 (episodes 52-90) have been archived on the Internet Archive. Approx 170 snapshots of the web site are also available through the WayBack machine. Access the audio content at archive.org/details/jps-90-ali…
Reminds me of when I was working in a computer bookshop and someone had ordered the "Microsoft Mouse Programmer's Reference" -- but somehow it came out as "Microsoft Mouse Programmer's Revenge" when she came to collect it.
this actually sounds kind of cool, but also it worries me that it's necessary?
Like, a knockout mouse is a mouse that's had a specific gene messed with so that scientists can learn about what that gene does. Some of those probably would affect a mouse's body or behavior in easily observable ways, but not all would be obvious so how do you figure those out? Interesting challenge.
More importantly: what the hell went wrong at your lab, that you have genetically modified mice but don't know what kind?! Did someone leave a window open and all the labels blew off the cages, and also no one remembers where *their* mice are housed? Did the rats of NIMH set all the mice loose in the lab? Was Paul in procurement drunk-shopping for mice? I am Concerned.
Once when I was a kid, my biologist uncle asked my sister, cousins and I for ideas on getting rats to pee, because he needed urine samples. (My sister was the only one who had an idea. It was, "just squeeze them!") Now I wish I knew how to make rats *not* pee while I'm holding them.
Yeah this is actually a really good simple breakdown of GOT as an algorithm that cuts through the FUD. and BS that shroud the real logic of how it works
well written explanation that no in fact this AI emperor has no clothes. Pattern matching. Yes. Getting quite good when scope is limited. But this is blatantly obvious because none of these AI firms particularly google are using these tools in their core business. Like detecting gmail spammers. And where used horrible results. Like current google search. Which is worst ever.
I was wondering if 10 series of Robot Wars taught us nothing? No srimech? No flipper? With the low gravity, imagine the potential for a backflip on the moon.
Combined answers from the Microsoft Community forum to the important question: "What's the maximum number of slides allowed in Microsoft PowerPoint?"
"Every slide is identified numerically by a Long number, meaning that the theoretical maximum is around 2,147,483,648" "Personally, I make it a rule never to include more than 10,000,000 slides in a presentation. One slide a second is about all people can absorb at best, and very few audiences will sit there and absorb information at that rate for half a year."
Americans wondering how on earth all the Taylor Swift fans got to last week’s concert at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when there’s no sea of car parking next to the stadium:
If you use a laptop with a trackpad which you can scroll with two fingers, and you don’t have a pinkie related disability, does your little finger do this?
There are white sauce, brown sauce, and orange sauce. The last one only just counts because it’s really named for the fruit not the colour. But ANYWAY can fedi think of any other sauces named for their colour?
'scuse the thread drift, but I really miss Lancashire sauce. It's a vegan alternative to Worcestershire sauce, which is aka English Garum (fermented fish sauce). I must see if I can get some Lancashire sauce smuggled.
@sesquipedality @karohemd this made me laugh, because as kids we used "pink flavour" to describe sweets which were pink in colour and vaguely fruity but you couldn't tell if they were supposed to be raspberry or strawberry or something else.
Dear Lady Chief Justice, We write on behalf of the Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network, a UK-based initiative focused on how the public can be supported to observe courts and access court infor…
people say the big class one railroads don't do innovation, but here is norfolk southern demonstrating their new folding trainset on the acela mainline
There are a few weird differences between opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, and civil partnerships. In particular, in the grounds on which the partnerships can be annulled on the application of one partner.
The first is that same-sex marriages aren't voidable for reasons of non-consummation; basically it used to mean "PIV sex" and Parliament didn't fancy trying to define consummation for same-sex couples in legislation.
The stranger one is that only marriage is voidable for reasons of venereal disease.
Isabel Ruffell
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Isabel Ruffell • •@Isabel Ruffell I transitioned with a lot of people who tried and were unable to access it.
Even at the peak of trans acceptance in the UK, being able to access ANYTHING depended on your postcode at least, and probably a few other things. Some PCTs as we’re basically refused to refer anyone for anything at all.
At which point, you either had the money to go round them, or you found ways to get it 😞
Isabel Ruffell
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Cyberspice
in reply to Isabel Ruffell • • •PointlessSpike
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •