The Dangerous Dr Webberley

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When it comes to the world of gender ideology, Dr Helen Webberley is infamous.

She is the Founder of GenderGP, an online private gender clinic, which has prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to thousands of children (charging hundreds of pounds a pop), since it was first established.

It has been plagued with safeguarding concerns and controversies. In 2018, Webberley was convicted of running an independent medical agency without being registered. GenderGP is currently registered in Singapore, in order to avoid UK regulation.

Webberley was also suspended from medical practice on the grounds of misconduct after safeguarding concerns were raised regarding a number of her former patients. Webberley ultimately had the suspension overturned by the High Court, although Mr Justice Jay made it clear that he has “concerns” about “certain aspects” of Webberly’s “practice”, which included her failure to have a face-to-face consultation with a young patient on the issue of fertility. Her husband, Michael Webberley, was struck off the medical register altogether for misconduct.

Just recently, it was reported that GPs have been warned not to work with GenderGP, following an ‘urgent safety alert’ issued by the NHS. This was issued given the fact that GenderGP prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without providing any “physiological or psychological support” to patients.

It has also emerged that Webberley has set up a new offshoot of GenderGP, Healthy Hormones, a service focussed around provision of cross-sex hormones.

Webberley has been on my radar for some time now. I have come across many concerning statements from her online. In 2022, she re-tweeted and said she “loved” a tweet, which read: “Being trans is cool as shit. Jump in, fuck it, what do you have to lose?”

Equally, in response to concerns regarding bone growth of children on puberty blockers, Webberley’s answer was that cross-sex hormones should be offered as quickly as possible.

These are not the statements of an ethical practitioner, guided by the Hippocratic Oath.

Webberley, unsurprisingly, rarely makes public appearances. So, when I discovered that she was appearing on a podcast, I knew that I had to listen to it. I was interested to hear her take on recent shifts in society, for example the NHS ban on puberty blockers, to see if she had reflected and changed her opinion.

If only.

The podcast, which went out on 28^th March, was in collaboration with ‘See Change Happen’, who describe themselves as ‘Inclusion and Belonging Consultants’, whatever that means. A cursory scroll showed up that they have offered consultancy to numerous organisations, including the NHS. The Founder is Joanne Lockwood, a transwoman (i.e. a biological male).

I previously listened to a talk given to university students by Lockwood, who said that he feels most vulnerable when using women’s toilets…I wonder how the women feel….

The title of the podcast episode is ‘Healthcare without Barriers’.

This, in and of itself, is a red flag. Healthcare and medical provision should never be a free-for-all. There must always be boundaries and safeguards in place.

The podcast commenced with Lockwood stating an intent to “ignite the spark of inclusion” before telling Webberley that he was honoured to speak with her, given that GenderGP had provided cross-sex hormones to him back in 2016.

Webberley began by explaining that she first got involved in this area after discovering that “thing were not good”. What exactly concerned Webberley? That “there were boundaries and barriers and gatekeeping” for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. To hear a doctor bemoan boundaries when it comes to potentially dangerous and irreversible medication, is truly shocking.

Instead, Webberley believes that doctors should, when faced with ‘trans’ patients, simply say to them: “Right, let’s get on this journey together”.

Webberley is fully aware of the risks of such medication. She tells Lockwood that, when starting out, she thought “oh my god, they are asking me to switch their hormones”. She reflected on the fact that, for example, giving testosterone to females could “reduce their life span”.

However, she soon changed her mind. She “looked at the chemical composition of the hormones” and discovered that “there are just one or two bars difference…they are all the same kind of compound”. In the end, she justified treatment on the basis that “we have just taken a little arm off or added a little hexagon” and that “it doesn’t really matter which hormones you have”. To listen to a doctor reduce children to a series of ‘arms’ or ‘hexagons’, without reflecting on the serious harm that can be caused, including infertility, is deeply troubling.

Webberley went on to justify puberty blockers on the grounds that we give them to children experiencing precocious puberty and cross-sex hormones on the grounds that we give them to adults suffering prostate cancer or going through the menopause. To compare treatment for physiological issues with treatment for a mental health condition is both disingenuous and dangerous.

She believes that GPs should be able to prescribe such medication and that if a ‘trans’ persons asks for it, the response should be: “Yeh, no problem!”

To doctors who fear future medical negligence claims, Webberley dismisses this on the basis that: “with every single medical intervention there is a regret rate…The regret rate for transitioning is tiny, is miniscule – compared with knee surgery or hip surgery.” Again, to compare rendering a child infertile or removing healthy breasts or genitals of an adult with knee surgery is utterly absurd.

All that matters to Webberley is “informed consent”. Should a 9-year-old child be able to consent to potentially irreversible harm? According to Webberley, yes.

In terms of wider society, Webberley believes that children who are ‘trans’ are often on the receiving end of “parenting which can be very antagonistic”. Instead, she believes that the way forward is for “grandmothers”, when told that their grandchild wants to transition, to instead say: “Oh my god, how amazing, well done poppet”. Such delusional thinking will only drive a wedge between children and their families.

Particularly shocking was when Webberley claims that those who have concerns about biological males in female hospital wards or school dormitories are “no different to people who used to be scared of coloured people”.

To even begin to compare women who have concerns about the sanctity of their safe spaces with racists, is despicable, especially given that such beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010.

When politicians are asked ‘can a woman have a penis?’, Webberley states that “the answer is so clearly yes”.

Ironically, Webberley states that she hates labels, saying “I have a problem with people being labelled heterosexual”, even though she throws around the labels of ‘trans’ and ‘non-binary’ like they’re going out of fashion.

She praises the work of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), notwithstanding the serious safeguarding failures recently uncovered within the organisation.

In one moment that made me laugh (if I didn’t laugh, I would cry) she uses the term “women and men” only to immediately catch herself and replace those terms with “oestrogen people and testosterone people”.

When asked about the NHS decision to ban the prescription of puberty blockers, Webberley states: “people will die…the people who signed off on those guidelines will be responsible for child deaths”. To make such a wild and divisive unnuanced and unevidenced accusation is truly despicable.

Finally, Webberley says that people who hold gender critical beliefs “should not be in positions of power” and that we must “eradicate people in those positions”. She goes on to say that: “we must make sure those people are not allowed to have a voice…we need to make sure they are penalised…these people have nasty, loud voices”.

This is discrimination and harassment, plain and simple.

Here is a woman taken over by an ideology. Demonstrating an inability to reflect or reconsider, crucial traits for a doctor, she says there is “not a shadow of a doubt” that she is correct.

Webberley believes that through her “eloquent voice” that she can “counter any argument thrown at her”.

Well, Dr Webberley, if you’re reading this – I believe I have a strong argument as to why you should be struck off the medical register. If you believe you can counter that argument, then let us have a livestreamed debate and allow the public to decide.