In 2017, Dr. Helen Webberley of Monmouthsire in Wales was placed under strict professional supervision after it was discovered that she was giving cross-sex hormones to children under the age of 16. At least one of those children was twelve years old. Webberley, who runs a private clinic, was willing to do what many other physicians would not—and the restrictions on her practice came after two doctors complained about her behavior to the UK General Medical Council.
The Webberley surname is again in the news in connection to the use of puberty blockers in children—but this time, it is Dr. Helen Webberley’s husband, Michael. The two ran an online gender clinic called GenderGP, and it seems that the husband simply picked up where the wife left off. The now-retired doctor was found guilty of “failing to provide good clinical care to seven patients between February 2017 and June 2019” by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) for doing precisely what his wife was disciplined for around the same time period.
In fact, Michael Webberley even took on some of his wife’s patients and prescribed cross-sex hormones. After several doctors complained about him, Webberley was found by the MPTS to have facilitated “treatment” that was “not clinically indicated” or “prescribed without adequate tests, examinations, or assessments.” Further, with all seven patients Webberley was found to have practiced “outside the limits of his expertise” as a consultant gastroenterologist with no qualifying experience or training in general practice or pediatrics. The MPTS found that Webberley diagnosed children with gender dysphoria without appropriate evidence, and that he even “failed … to obtain consent for treatments.”
