Psychiatrist under investigation for mis-handling sex-change cases

The gay community in the British Commonwealth is rather upset about reports that British psychiatrist and sex change counselour Dr Russell Reid is being investigated:

This week the General Medical Council began to hear allegations of professional misconduct against Dr Russell Reid, an internationally-renowned consultant psychiatrist specialising in transgender and gender reassignment issues, commonly referred to medically as gender dysphoria or Gender Identity Disorder (GID).

The allegations are that between 1984 and 2003 Dr Reid prescribed sex-change treatment for some transgender patients too quickly and without a sufficient cooling off period to allow patients to change their minds.

It is claimed that he failed to adhere to the guidelines advised by the US-based Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. Although not legally binding, these guidelines about how soon to start hormone treatment and how soon to undertake surgery are followed by many specialists in gender dysphoria.

The guidelines state that patients should have been living in their desired gender role for at least three months before being prescribed hormones, or have had at least three months of psychotherapy. Patients should also undergo a minimum of 12 months hormone therapy and live in their desired gender role for 12 months before referral for gender change surgery.

The allegation is that Dr Reid began treating some transgender patients earlier than the guidelines stipulated.

Dr Reid denies the charge of misconduct. He claims to have given full consideration to the guidelines as part of a thorough assessment of each patient’s needs, but that inflexible guidelines were not in the best interest of some patients.

Of course, Sexuality is one of the major causes of confusion in the life of most humans walking the face of the Earth today. We therefore feel that any major body alterations to address these and other issues need to be addressed with the utmost care and caution, for the sake of all of those involved.

We recalled an early sequence of shows featured on Oprah many years ago, where a young man wanted to have a sex change operation. The man's mother mortgaged the house to pay for the operation. After the operation, the young man had an epiphany, and realized that he had made a terrible mistake. and wanted to go back to being a man.

It is due to cases like this that cautious rules have been made. This is not intended to invalidate those with Gender Identity issues. We merely feel that a proper respect of persons requires that great care be exercised in determining the truth in these very personal matters.

Regular readers of this site can imagine our opinions of the psychiatrist under current investigation.

See also this earlier report