The strange idea of ‘transitioning’ from one sex, or rather, ‘gender’, to another, is nothing new. Here’s an excerpt from ‘A Christmas Carol’, an episode of The Goon Show, first broadcast by the BBC on 24 December 1959, in which the characters Ray Ellington (a black jazz singer, played by himself) and Scratchit (Harry Secombe) have the following [...]
According to an online BBC report (21 December 2022), so it must be true, if Scotland is representative of the world it has indeed gone mad. How so? Let me explain. The headline announces: ‘People aged 16 and 17 to be allowed to change gender’. This is what the Scottish Parliament has decided in spite of hecklers shouting [...]
When I was working in full-time general practice I would occasionally see young women whose periods had stopped who came for another opinion after an initial visit to a gynaecologist. The gynaecologist had prescribed female hormones but this hadn't worked. The reason was obvious. The gynaecologist had failed to look above the patient’s waist: she was suffering from [...]
Much about the Harley Street Gender Clinic in London’s west end is ambiguous, not to say confused, just like the idea of gender expression itself. The Clinic is run by a Dr Vickie Pasterski, who according to a TEDx talk she gave, believes ‘there are as many gender presentations as there are stars in the sky.’ After viewing [...]
Medicine is an inexact science, which is rather a contradiction in terms, but in dealing with patients’ problems doctors can seldom be absolutely certain of anything. That is why medical students are taught to be wary of using the words ‘always’ and ‘never’. Indeed, general practice has been called 'the art of managing uncertainty,' because one often sees [...]
When a woman tries to turn herself into a man There is in Britain a charitable organisation called Educational Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH). One of its aims is to ‘promote affirmative and accurate representations of LGBT lives’, whatever that means, and in pursuit of this goal has put out a video titled ‘What is gender?’ After excruciatingly irritating [...]
What is it with The British Medical Journal (BMJ) that makes them pander to the woke brigade? From an issue in early 2022 in an article on breast cancer screening, which obviously applies to women, they feel constrained to say: Some trans men and women and non-binary people are also eligible for breast cancer screening, and although the [...]
The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals. Sir William Osler (1925). It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its most virulent form. From ‘Three Men [...]
In March this year The British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an article on ‘Low back pain in people aged 60 years and over’. The authors rightly remind doctors to have a higher index of suspicion for cancer, infections, and bone fractures in older people, but otherwise the approach to back pain is largely the same as in younger [...]
Amazing news! An entity called gender dysphoria has been discovered! But it certainly is not a mental disorder, apparently. What is it then? To try and find out, let’s look at an outfit called GenderGP. Their website opens with a bold statement: ‘We believe trans people of all ages exist. Full stop. No debate.’ Why the defensive tone? [...]