On this special episode of the GenderGP podcast, Helen and Marianne sit down and talk about the upcoming Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service hearing. Helen shares her hopes and fears for what's to come, talks about her support from the community, and tells her story - in her own words.

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 The GenderGP PodcastImplications of the MPTS Hearing

Helen:Hello, this is Dr. Helen. Webberley welcome to our Gender GP podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today together with my co-host Marianne Oaks, a trans woman, herself and our head of therapies.

Hi, everyone on a slightly different podcast today. It's just Marianne and I, and I have to say for the first time I feel nervous. I feel a bit kind of, uh, I dunno, emotional, I guess, because what we are talking about the last five years and how Gender GP started, how it progressed, and then how it has ended up in a, at the end of July in a, a big 55 day tribunal hearing, which will be hearing, um, whether my medical license, um, can be reinstated. It's been a long, long journey, but I thought it would be a good idea just to share with you how things have unraveled. And I've got my good friend Marianne with me today because she's been with me from the start and she's a good sounding board and anyone out there who's ever had a, a cry on Marianne's shoulder.

I think, you know, she's an appropriate person to guide me through the story that I'm about to tell you. So back in 2015, I was a, a GP in a small Valley's village in Wales as quite a deprived area. And I was one of those doctors who kind of thought that I'd never really met that many trans people before. We certainly didn't have lots and lots of trans patients in our surgery, if any, at all. So I'd obviously I'd met trans patients in my work doing sexual health, but not in a kind of general practice setting. And one day a patient came to see me. She was about 55 ish, I guess. So we're in Wales, we're in the valleys. And she said to me, I want to transition and how do I go about it? And I was like, I dunno, I've got no idea.

You know, I'm fairly new to Wales. I don't know how this is gonna go, but I'll look it up and I'll come back to you and come back and see me next week. So I did a bit of research and I realized when she came back to see me next week, um, and told her what I'd found as I told her, what we had to do, basically what I was telling her was she would have to get on a train from this valley village. And there would be one change on the train to get to Cardiff another change from Cardiff to get to London. And she would have to go to London on this train and turn up at the clinic there wearing a dress. She'd have to go wearing something that made her look like a woman. And she would have to then see the consultants there.

And as I was telling her this story, you know, even the first bit, even the first bit getting on the train to the local train station to do the change to card, if was just not in this person's radar, nevermind presenting female on a train into London where she'd never before. As I kind of relayed the story, my words fell away. And I was like, this is just not gonna happen. Is it? And we, we both shook our heads. And I said, I tell you what, come back next week.