This visual shows the rapid increase in the number of referrals to gender clinics in Canada. The clinic at @CHEO here in Ottawa saw demand steadily increase from two children a year in 2006 to 189 children a year in 2016. Why on earth aren& #39;t doctors alarmed by this!? /1

Dr Margaret Lawson, an endocrinologist at @CHEO, says there& #39;s no explanation for this growth, but vaguely suggests in this article that knowledge and awareness about gender diversity is the cause. /2 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/trans-teens-ottawa-cheo-demand-1.5026034">https://www.cbc.ca/news/cana...

Now, if that were the case, why aren& #39;t there plenty of women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s lining up to get double mastectomies and shots of testosterone, finally able to be their true selves now that society will accept them for the men they always were? /3

Why is it almost entirely teenagers? Many of whom are on the autism spectrum, many of whom have psychiatric comorbidities such as eating disorders, anxiety, & depression. Why does the no. of referrals start to sharply increase right at the same time smartphones became popular? /4

I personally know of a teenage girl, suffering from a classic case of rapid onset gender dysphoria, who walked out of her first appointment at @CHEO with puberty blockers, without any psychological assessment or counselling. This is an outrage - reckless medical malpractice. /5

@CHEO - These kids don& #39;t need drugs, they need therapy. They don& #39;t need setting on a path to having body parts amputated, they need help through this crisis. This is a medical scandal on the scale of lobotomies, and the doctors who enabled it will go down in history as monsters.