Outspoken academic Kathleen Stock has blasted the medical profession for ‘experimenting’ on teenagers by giving them hormones and allowing them to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
The gender-critical professor, who resigned from her role at the University of Sussex in 2021 after a huge backlash over her comments on transgender rights, has called for people to be in their ‘twenties at least’ before undergoing procedures.
Professor Stock described adolescent concerns over gender identity as often occurring during a ‘playful phase’ and said people should receive ‘a lot of counselling’ before making any firm decisions.
The feminist, who worked at the university for 18 years, made headlines after opposing proposals for self-identification but has always denied being transphobic.
Speaking on the Rosebud podcast, Prof Stock said society had made it more common for children to raise questions over their identity but that didn’t necessarily mean they were transgender.
‘It’s much more prevalent now because children look around them and see it as a possibility where they didn’t so much (in the past) but it’s always been there,’ she said.
‘It’s a playful phase where they’re experimenting with identities and the fact that they’re being given drugs on the basis of these thoughts is absolutely unconscionable.
‘At the very least you give it enough time. The 18 year old who wants to get rid of their secondary sex organs, that’s pretty soon in my book. I think it’d be great if you could wait until you’re in your 20s at least.’
Earlier this year in March, a landmark ruling banned children from being given puberty blockers on the NHS.
The health service in England said it would no longer offer gender-questioning children controversial puberty blockers, saying its review found a lack of evidence on their ‘safety or clinical effectiveness’.
Puberty blockers, a class of medications called gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues, pause the physical changes of puberty such as breast development or the growth of facial hair.
This gave gender dysphoria sufferers time to ‘consider their options’ and ‘explore their developing gender identity’ before potentially starting more permanent forms of treatment like sex hormones, according to now defunct NHS guidance.
The decision received backlash from those within the trans community who slammed the ‘cruel’ decision, arguing it would ‘irreparably’ damage the health of trans youth.
Meanwhile, campaigners celebrated the move. One ex-patient given the powerful drugs as a child said it was ‘insane’ that kids were ever allowed to take them.
Professor Stock also previously condemned proposals to ban conversion therapy and said it would ‘rob’ people of the ‘chance to think again’.
The academic went on to claim in the podcast that people should receive counselling before making any decision to formally transition.
The professor added: ‘You need a lot of counselling. You certainly don’t need one or two half hour appointments in a gender clinic before you’re given testosterone or an appointment with a surgeon – you need to seriously, seriously, seriously, think about this.’
Professor Stock was forced to leave her role at the University of Sussex after she was hounded for saying biological males cannot be women.
Last year, she was invited to Oxford University to speak the 200-year-old debating society on the issue.
Upon her arrival, hundreds of demonstrators chanted and played loud music to try to drown out the academic.
When inside the chamber her address was crashed by anti-royal trans activist Riz Possnett, who glued themselves to the floor as others ranted about ‘no more dead trans kids’.
She later revealed that she was bundled into a broom cupboard by security on campus ahead of her speech.