The dangerous stupidity of Jolyon Maugham and Benjamin Cohen
From a thread by Malcolm Clark
Endocrinologist @will_malone points out a crucial finding that contributed to the Tavi's closure: its failure to research properly the risks of puberty blockers. So what did Jolyon and Benjy say?
Two years ago Jolyon mocked the ONLY animal trials ever conducted into puberty blockers (in 2017). He ridiculed the fact they were supervised by an expert on veterinary medicine. As are all animal trials Jolyon, duhh. He then went further in an outrageous smear.
He implied that Professor Evans's work could be discounted because it was later quoted by a Christian outfit with which Evans has nothing to do. Benjamin Cohen's lying rag Pink news then picked up the baton, scorning Kiera Bell for quoting the animal trial in her case.
The point is the trial discovered young sheep given puberty blockers suffered significant mental impairment. Wouldn't people who cared about teenage humans worry about that? Instead, Pink News crowed, "Sheep? Yes Really!" Here's why the sheep matter and Cohen is a fool.
It's gender identity fanatics who argue it's unethical to run a human trial where a control group of gender dysphoric kids are NOT given blockers. That's why Glasgow University partnered with Norway's biggest gender identity clinic to devise an animal trial. So why sheep?
Mammals all go through adolescence and sheep's brains go through a radical adolescent rewiring like ours. Identical chemical interactions occur as in us too. Yep, pituitary gland, GnRH hormones, sex hormones; even anxiety, increased risk taking and "moodiness". Amazing eh?
Also, if you want to study the impact of a chemical on the human body, mice are so different in body mass from us that it's hard to get the dose right. Sheep are much closer (average mass 55kg) to humans. And there are fewer moral concerns than using monkeys.
The problem for Evans and his team was how to examine the mental health of sheep in ways that shed light on human brain function. The Glasgow peeps did something brilliant. They devised a complex maze for their young sheep and trained them (using food) to navigate through it.
The young sheep that weren't given blockers, when they were reintroduced to the maze, after an absence, found their way round as before. Those who took the blockers were lost. This is a precise sort of memory: spatial. You can read the paper here
The worrying point was even when the blockers were discontinued spatial memory never returned. This suggests that any risks from puberty blockers are NOT reversible. It wasn't the only impact that turned out to be irreversible (despite years of propaganda from Big Pharma).
Young male sheep who were given blockers remained more anxious and uncertain after blockers were stopped than the control group. The team concluded blockers "may also have long-lasting effects on other brain areas and aspects of cognitive function." They'd only tested two.
I REALLY don't get it. We know Jolyon, OJ and Cohen have a continual problem with facts. But if they really cared about "young trans people", as they claim they do, how could they possibly dismiss these findings with nothing more serious than cheap slurs and jests?
Is the conclusion that these two loudmouth mammals are dangerously stupid or are they somehow using trans rights for another ulterior purpose? Maybe someone should devise an animal trial to find out. They'd need a far dumber animal than a sheep to test the question on.
Thank you. I don't understand why clinicians felt justified to use such an untested drug on young children? Is it because they really didn't care what happened to them, or were they using them as human guinea pigs? Either way heads must roll. Add to this the scorn poured on the research by those two idiots, it beggars belief.
Wow. This is a very illuminating article - thank you. That trial is clearly relevant which makes the Pink News rubbishing of it, also very illuminating.