A UK National Health Service (NHS) trust is arguing that milk produced in men artificially by means of hormone drugs is “comparable” in quality to that produced by a woman following the birth of her baby.
A leaked letter from Dr. Rachel James, the medical director of University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, written on behalf of Chief Executive Dr. George Findley, claims milk from women who gave birth to babies and men who took hormone drugs to induce lactation are both “human milk” and “ideal food for infants.”
James’ letter, dated August 23, was included in a report by a think tank called Policy Exchange.
“[T]here is clear and overwhelming evidence that human milk is the ideal food for infants,” the letter asserts and includes in the category of “human milk” both normal breast milk produced by a woman after giving birth and the drug-induced lactation of men claiming to be women.
Policy Exchange notes the letter was sent after an activist group called Children of Transitioners complained to the NHS Trust’s chief executive about its gender policies.
On May 20, the group took issue with the Trust policy titled “Perinatal Care for Trans and Non-Binary People.”
Policy Exchange notes:
This specific policy appears to have been removed from the Trust’s website, on which there is now a link to a document produced by the organisation La Leche League GB entitled ‘Support for Transgender & Non-binary Parents’. La Leche League states that it “…supports everyone who wants to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals. We do not discriminate based on sex, gender or gender identity.”
“We are the UK group representing children of transitioners/ transpeople (CoTs),” Children of Transitioners wrote to the Trust as described in a February 22 post on its website titled “Safeguarding Concerns in the NHS.”
“Sadly many of us have experienced abuse, both domestic and sexual, from a parent (usually our dads),” the group continues, adding, “As you know CoTs who experience these crimes have the right to anonymity eg 2 girls who have experienced sexual abuse from transitioner males, including a father, in the press just this month.”
The organization explained to the Trust its concerns:
We are writing to you as the body responsible for NHS Safeguarding nationally to raise a substantial safeguarding concern about the sexual and emotional abuse of babies and children of transitioners that needs urgent action to protect children from further abuse. We understand some NHS Trusts are now seeking to enable and enforce the sexual and emotional abuse of children who are CoTs, and are introducing policies that not only fail to safeguard these children, nor recognise UK and European law, but also actively encourage the sexual assault and grooming of vulnerable babies and children who come into contact with NHS staff.
“We have seen evidence that some hospital Trusts are making children of transitioners suck their father’s nipples – a [sic] act of sexual assault and grooming that deeply shocks us as NHS staff should be protecting COT infants not enabling their abuse – and refer to our fathers as our mothers, or vice versa, in the presence of children of transitioners, which is abusive gaslighting in conflict with the law,” the group wrote.
In her letter responding to the safety concerns of Children of Transitioners, James wrote “staff work hard to ensure all babies in the care of the Trust are kept safe.”
Regarding the use of hormone drugs to induce lactation in men, James said:
Medications are sometimes used to induce lactation, similar to the natural hormones which encourage lactation to develop when the baby is newly born although occasionally some people are able to induce lactation without hormonal treatment. The evidence which is available demonstrates that the milk is comparable to that produced following the birth of a baby.
As the Telegraph reported, men claiming to be women take the hormone progestin to develop milk-producing glands, and then domperidone to help produce prolactin which signals the body to produce milk.
“Staff further clarify that the term human milk is meant to be neutral and is not gender-biased,” James also wrote regarding the Trust’s policy, but also appeared to dismiss concerns of side effects of the hormone drugs in the lactation of men that could be passed on to infants.
Regarding its gender policy, James said the Trust “does not believe that the Perinatal Care for Trans and Non-Binary People policy conflicts with the rights and health needs of any individual infant.”
The leaked letter has created a firestorm, with major reports by both the Daily Mail and the Telegraph over the weekend.
“Babies can’t be used as guinea pigs for someone else’s lifestyle choice,” Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Rosie Duffield responded, according to the Daily Mail. The MP added:
When a man has not and cannot grow a baby, why on earth are we pandering to this? Who does it benefit? Not the children. We wouldn’t do any other medical experiments on babies. Breast milk made by a baby’s biological mother is tailor-made for that baby.
Duffield also cautioned about the “ethics of untested chemicals in children,” and said the NHS Trust’s inclusion of the drug-induced lactation in men as “human milk” risks obliterating women.
The Trust’s “Gender Inclusion” policy states “gender inclusive midwives provide inclusive, respectful care to pregnant women and people and their families.”
Among the “support” services the Trust offers to men claiming to be female are: “pronoun alerts”; “personalized birth, feeding and parenting preparation (antenatal classes) at home”; and “developing an infant feeding plan, which may include breastfeeding or chest feeding or expressing milk.”
According to the Telegraph, the Trust in 2021 launched Britain’s “first clinical and language guidelines supporting trans and non-binary birthing people.”
Lottie Moore, of the Policy Exchange, said in a statement reported by the Daily Mail the Trust “is unbalanced and naïve in its assertion that the secretions produced by a male on hormones can nourish an infant in the way a mother’s breast milk can.”
“A child’s welfare must always take precedence over identity politics and contested belief systems that are not evidence-based,” Moore added. “The NHS should not be indulging in this nonsense. It is compromising women’s rights and child safeguarding.”
Similarly, Maya Forstater, the director of Sex Matters, denounced James’ letter, according to the Telegraph.
“For a chief executive and medical director of an NHS trust to prioritise trans identities over what is best for mothers and their babies is deeply disturbing,” she said.
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