A private clinic that offers puberty blockers to gender-questioning British children is registered in Singapore, where these powerful drugs are not given to children.
GenderGP is run by Dr Helen Webberley, a former NHS GP who describes herself as an “advocate for health rights and LGBTQ+ inclusion”.
Critics told MailOnline that GenderGP has shattered any “pretense” that it cares about such rights by establishing itself in the Southeast Asian nation.
Her business, which boasts of helping anyone “no matter what age they are”, advertises its £270 puberty-blocking injections online, despite campaigners calling for an urgent crackdown on “clinics of cowboys”.
Children can no longer get medicines through the NHS after a landmark ruling last month, meaning they have to turn to private services to get them.
Dr Helen Webberley is the face of private care for gender questioning young people in the UK, an area of growing controversy in the wake of the Cass review.
Health chiefs said there was no evidence that the drugs, which stop the physical changes of puberty such as breast development and facial hair growth, were safe or effective.
Ministers have since pledged to “carefully study” the order banning private clinics after an explosive report by pediatric expert Dr Hilary Cass raised concerns about their behaviour.
In the wake of the review, a GenderGP defiant said children will “suffer and die” if the Cass review’s recommendations go ahead.
GenderGP is an offshore organization registered in Singapore, which It does not recognize homosexual marriage.
The island nation did not repeal the ban on sexual relations between men until 2022.
Singapore also does not allow under-18s to get puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones on their NHS equivalent.
However, children can receive hormones privately from the age of 16.
Because you are based outside the UK, you do not need to be registered with the regulatory body, the Care Quality Commission.
Cass’s landmark review of gendered care for children in the UK put services like Dr Webberley’s under the microscope.
Led by pediatric expert Dr Hilary Cass, the scathing review found that children were being set on a path of irreversible change despite “remarkably weak evidence” supporting medical treatment such as puberty blockers and sex hormones. crusades
Dr Cass’ review also highlighted private services and found that patients who had visited a private doctor had “put pressure on GPs to prescribe hormones”.
The report, which ran to almost 400 pages, issued a stark warning about “the use of unregulated medicines and from suppliers who are not regulated in the UK”.
Dr Cass said GPs should resist attempts by private providers to prescribe hormones or puberty blockers, “especially if that private provider acts outside of NHS guidelines”.
UK advocacy group LGB Alliance chief executive Kate Barker told MailOnline: ‘Unregulated private clinics selling puberty blockers to these children are profiting from their confusion.
“Any pretense of ‘concern’ is belied by the hypocrisy of registering a clinic in a tax haven that is actively hostile to gay rights.”
Dr. Webberley GenderGP offers a range of treatments to young people who have concerns about their gender identity.
Its website states that it does not impose a strict age criterion for testing and does not require parental consent.
However, he adds that children do not need medical intervention until they reach a particular stage of puberty.
It uses EU-based prescribers to issue prescriptions for drugs such as puberty blockers and hormones that are valid in the UK under a post-Brexit deal.
This allows patients, even children, to circumvent NHS guidelines on who should receive these drugs.
On its F&Q page, where it explains its system, it states that UK pharmacies “cannot refuse to dispense” such medicines without “good reason”.
In the wake of the Cass review, GenderGP issued a defiant message via social media, stating that children will die if the recommended measures are implemented in the NHS.
“We know that children and young people will suffer and die if these recommendations are implemented,” she wrote in a message shared by Dr. Webberley herself.
She went on to say, “GenderGP will continue to provide support to all people of any age who are transgender and seeking gender-affirming care.”
GenderGP described itself as “owned by Singapore-based GenderGP PTE Ltd, a global organization providing advocacy services for LGBTQI+ people around the world.”
Their website makes no reference to LGBT rights in their host country.
Dr Webberley is no stranger to controversy and previously celebrated news that 70 children aged three and four had been referred to the NHS for gender treatment.
In 2018, she was found guilty of running an independent medical agency without being registered and fined £12,000.
Later in 2022, she was suspended by the Medical Tribunal Service (MPTS) for a series of charges including failing to provide good clinical care in 2016 to three female patients, aged 11, 12 and 17, who were transitioning. to kids.
GenderGP’s headquarters in Singapore is where the company that distributes controversial drugs to young people in the UK is based.
In its determination, the panel found that 36 allegations, including failure to provide adequate follow-up care to a 12-year-old boy who was prescribed testosterone, were proven.
The MPTS suspended Dr Webberley for two months but vowed to oppose the sentence.
A year later, in 2023, the High Court overturned the suspension, finding that the MPTS panel was “confusing, clearly wrong in places and omitted references to important evidence”.
Investigations indicated that Dr Webberley had been provisionally suspended since May 2017 for patient safety reasons.
The appeal allowed Dr. Webberley to continue practicing his profession without restrictions.
But the same is not true of her husband and former doctor Michael Webberley.
In 2022, an MPTS tribunal struck him off the UK medical register for what it called a “catalogue of failings” in relation to the care he provided to seven patients between February 2017 and June 2019.
One was only nine years old and another, a teenager, committed suicide in the following months.
Mr Webberley, in all seven patients, was found to have provided treatment that was not clinically indicated or had been prescribed without appropriate testing, examination or assessment.
Michael Webberley was struck off the UK medical register over a “catalogue of failings” in relation to his care of the seven patients between February 2017 and June 2019.
He had made diagnoses of gender dysphoria – “a feeling of discomfort that a person may have due to a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity”, according to the NHS – based on inadequate information and without obtaining informed consent. from the patients.
The tribunal also found that he had acted “outside the bounds of his expertise” as a consultant gastroenterologist and had failed to establish multidisciplinary teams.
In several cases, Mr Webberley had taken on patients after restrictions were placed on his wife’s practice.
The most concerning case was that of a 17-year-old patient referred to in the proceedings as “Patient W” who contacted Webberley in 2018.
They were unhappy with long waiting lists for NHS treatment and said in an email that they wanted to transition as soon as possible as it would have a “hugely positive impact” on their mental health.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to take hormones and that means a lot to me,” they added. “I’m so happy it’s finally happening.”
Dr Webberley diagnosed patient W with gender dysphoria without verifying the information with his GP.
The court also found that he prescribed testosterone when it was not clinically indicated and without establishing whether the risks were less than the risks to the patient’s physical and mental health.
Patient W had been diagnosed with Asperger’s and had “complex” and long-standing mental health problems, but Mr Webberley “did not appear” to be aware of them and had failed to obtain the patient’s medical records, the court found.
Patient W committed suicide just three months later.
MailOnline has approached Dr Webberley and GenderGP for comment.