Some had been sexually abused, she says, some were struggling with their sexuality, and some had suffered early traumas in their lives. Others were autistic or were being bullied in school.” Hannah Milton of BJGP Life explains that Barnes' approach to writing the book was "very rigorous" and that Barnes "comes across as a compassionate writer" who was objective, "fair and balanced". However, reading the "fastidiously documented" book was "heavy going at times" and ultimately "doesn’t give any answers about how a gender service should be run". [12] Suzanne Moore from The Daily Telegraph called it "well-researched" and notes that "Barnes is not coming at this from an ideological viewpoint." [13] Janice Turner of The Times said it was a "sober, rhetoric-free and meticulously researched" account. [14] Awards [ edit ] Award Actually, there isn't agreement amongst frontline clinicians working with this group of young people about how best to care for them, and how there may be different ways to care for different people. As distinct from those who would have been genetically female, but were instead born male due to a problem occurring in the endocrine system during their sex development. Is that by the time puberty arrives, almost a decade will have passed, making social contagion an unknown factor that cannot be ignored?

Time to Think review: the book that tells the full story of

Some who had come into the profession to do talking therapy did almost none, as patients were referred for drugs sometimes after two sessions. Meanwhile, some of the gay staff were wondering if this all just conversion therapy for gay kids. Some staff felt under surveillance; they had doubts but they were reticent as expressing them could lead to accusations of transphobia. To say that sex itself is immutable was clearly heretical. To make this clear, we are not referring to anyone who is in the least bit “transphobic.” Rather, these clinicians feel the insane increase in referral numbers of trans children over the years needs to be examined more closely as to , rather than simply ignoring the problem. It’s unbelievable to me that the most vulnerable members of our population, children (sometimes as young as 3 or 4!) are being put onto a pathway which clearly isn’t right for them and at times when they clearly aren’t struggling with gender identity itself, but rather homosexuality, and often puberty and the awkwardness that EVERY child goes through at its onset.As someone who knew about this years ago, as people were writing to me asking my former newspaper to investigate it, it would suit my agenda to say this was all down to trans activism. But it’s not that simple.

Hannah Barnes | Book review | The TLS Time to Think by Hannah Barnes | Book review | The TLS

Paul Cullen, of the The Irish Times calls the book "forensic and sombre" and "scrupulously non-judgemental". [8] Cordelia Fine describes the book as an "exhaustively researched account" of "a textbook organizational scandal". Fine notes that Barnes "repeatedly relays clinicians’ support for young people’s access to a medical pathway [and] offers no grist for prejudice-fuelled mills." Fine explains what she regards as "[s]ocially just medicine" and says "Barnes’s book is replete with examples of how far short the gender service fell from this ideal." [9] Barnes, Hannah (14 Feb 2023). "Gender Identity, Children and the NHS". The News Agents (Interview). Interviewed by Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall. Some patients were very clear, from very young, about their identity. But others presented puzzles. How to approach a child professing three alter egos, two with Australian accents? Or one wanting to transition both sex and race to “become” Japanese, or survivors of trauma with compelling reasons for wishing to leave their old selves behind, or kids with complex mental health diagnoses? Will Lloyd of the New Statesman called it "as scrupulous as journalism can be" and noted "[t]hough pundits will use it as fuel for columns, Time to Think is no anti-trans polemic ". [11]FiLiA: Your book focuses on an incredibly divisive topic, which is how to approach gender dysphoria in children. Why is this such a controversial area of medicine? Many children referred to the service had suffered trauma, had mental health problems or had experienced ‘deprived or injurious upbringings.’” It is stressed repeatedly throughout the book that many senior clinicians who desperately tried to raise concerns with management and executive members were not only being repeatedly ignored or silenced, but were also very often - if subtly - being told their view was wrong and if they couldn’t get on board with what GIDS was doing, perhaps they should look for another job. Making sure that we offer the books our customers want to read is the basis of good bookselling and good service means treating all our customers with respect and for them to feel welcome to choose the books they want.” Not only is this pathway wrong, but unlike claims made to the contrary, it almost certainly is hurting children and we simply aren’t hearing enough of the detransition/regret stories (and neither are they) because it has turned into a bizarre political and ideological battle, where instead of encouraging free thinking, doctors and providers are being forced to STOP thinking and prescribe to the status quo, or find somewhere else to work.