Skip to content

Hannah Ryan vs. transgender people

Hannah Ryan is a British healthcare researcher and anti-transgender activist. Ryan is affiliated with anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), Liverpool ReSisters, FiLiA, Woman’s Place UK, Labour Women’s Declaration, and Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG).

Background

Hannah Ryan was born in May 1985. Ryan attended University of Liverpool, earning a master’s degree in 2008 and a bachelor’s degree in 2009. In 2012, Ryan earned a diploma from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, then worked there as a researcher from 2015 to 2017.

In 2017, Ryan made international news for having a role in a medical scandal involving Ebola. Ryan had traveled to Sierra Leone in 2014 to assist with an Ebola outbreak. When Ryan returned via commercial airline to Glasgow from Sierra Leone, Ryan was traveling with Pauline Cafferkey, a nurse who was infected but not yet diagnosed with Ebola. Ryan and nurse Donna Wood were involved in fabricating data, recording Cafferkey’s body temperature as lower than they observed. Cafferkey was diagnosed with Ebola on December 19, 2014 and spent nearly a month in a specialized isolation unit. Cafferkey had several subsequent hospitalizations. Cafferkey, Wood, and Ryan were all brought to tribunals. Ryan, who had agreed to record the incorrect temperature, was suspended for one month by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal in March 2017.

From 2017 to 2019, Ryan served as an LAS [Locum Appointment for Service] registrar in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Infectious Diseases at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust. In 2019, Ryan took a registrar role in clinical pharmacology/therapeutics and general internal medicine at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Ryan has been involved in feminist efforts to prevent violence against women. In 2006, Ryan stated about a recent “take back the night” rally: “I’ve come on this march because I’ve been involved in campaigning against male violence for the best part of twenty years and we’ve made a lot of gains in some ways but still actually women are blamed if they are raped, women are frightened to go out on their own at night, I’m frightened walking home from the tube at night on my own and we need to stand together as women to make a change.” From 2014 to 2019, Ryan served as a trustee of RASA Merseyside, a rape and sexual abuse support network.

Anti-trans activism

In a 2024 oral history of the anti-trans “gender critical” movement, Ryan stated:

In around 2017 Mandy Vere, a long-standing member of the women’s co-operative that runs a radical bookshop in my city, quietly approached me about ‘the trans issue.’ By this point, the conflict and venom around this issue was very clear, and events like the harassment of Helen Steel at the London Anarchist Bookfair had made it evident that women in leftist circles would be punished for speaking openly about their views if they dissented from the transactivist mantras. Mandy wanted to set up a group for women to talk freely and start taking action, and this is how Liverpool ReSisters was born. We started with a handful of women, some from local trade unions, others from radical groups, some who had been silenced on this issue in their workplaces, and a few with trans-identifying children. Eventually other ReSisters groups were started all over the country.

We are proud this started in Liverpool, and we’re also proud that our sticker woman actions were the first to get the attention of national (and even international) media in the summer of 2018, when one of our group stickered her local area and posted images of the ‘women don’t have penises’ stickers on social media.8 Suddenly, we were fielding phone calls from the press,9 and local councillors brought a motion censuring us to Liverpool City Council. We went on to organize a public meeting with Helen Watts, Michele Moore, Stephanie Davies-Arai, and Bob Withers speaking in April 2018, which I chaired. Liverpool ReSisters were very engaged in local activism during the consultation on reform of the Gender Recognition Act in 2018 and leafletted in the city as well as organizing protest actions at Labour conference. This felt like a very positive time, despite the anxiety of being in conflict with other left-wing activists who we had thought of as friends and comrades. The group included women who hadn’t really been active politically before as well, which felt important. We attended WPUK meetings together, and FiLiA conferences, and discussed women’s rights issues beyond the trans issue, learning from each other. I read about the origins of the trans rights movement and engaged with the work of feminists critiquing trans activism such as Magdalen Berns, Rebecca Reilly-Cooper, Jane Clare Jones, Heather Brunskell-Evans, Victoria Smith, and others.

At the FiLiA conference in Bradford in 2019, I met a woman I knew from environmental activism in Liverpool, and she asked me to come to meet a group of Labour women who wanted to set up a gender-critical collective. This was the second meeting in the formation of what became the Labour Women’s Declaration working group. I became active with LWD, helping to draft the original declaration and writing briefings for the group. LWD has done amazing work and made incredible progress since that day in Bradford, and should get more credit for changing the political landscape on this issue. Most of the women in this network are long-standing Labour activists and feminists, and it was truly a privilege and an education to get to know them and work with them.

Ryan has co-authored work with other anti-trans activists, including Susan Bewley, Caroline Eliacheff, Kirsty Entwistle, Patrick K. Hunter, Riittakerttu Kaltiala, BĂ©ryl Koener, Kasia Kozlowska, Mikael LandĂ©n, Alexandre Ledrait, CĂ©line Masson, Stella O’Malley, Anne WĂŠhre, and Kenneth Zucker.

Ryan was announced as a speaker at Rethinking Youth Gender Medicine, a 2026 conference held by SEGM and CAN-SG.

References

Hughes, Lorna (August 19, 2019). This is why the Iron Men have been plastered with penis stickers. Liverpool Echo https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/iron-men-penis-sticker-row-15046961.amp

Staff report (August 20, 2018). ‘Liverpool ReSisters criticised for “anti-trans” sticker stunt on Crosby Beach statues,’ Sky News, https://news.sky.com/story/amp/liverpool-resisters-criticised-for-anti-trans-sticker-stunt-on-crosby-beach-statues-11477713

Braidwood, Ella (September 20, 2018). Liverpool mayor passes “trans women are women” motion, despite anti-trans resistance. PinkNews https://www.thepinknews.com/2018/09/20/liverpool-mayor-joe-anderson-anti-trans-billboard-women-penises-stickers/

Jenkins, Katharine (August 28, 2018). Why a woman can have a penis: gender identity myths explained. Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/can-woman-have-penis-gender-identity-myths-explained-1093051

Dyer, Clare (April 3, 2017). Junior doctor suspended for a month for falsifying temperature of nurse later found to have Ebola. BMJ, j1679. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j1679

Horne, Marc (March 30, 2017). Ebola screening doctor guilty of serious misconduct. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/ebola-screening-doctor-guilty-of-serious-misconduct-pzfdkg6r6

Dunn, Connor (March 30, 2017). Liverpool doctor who LIED TWICE about a nurse with Ebola suspended. Liverpool Echo https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-doctor-who-lied-twice-12823199

Staff report (March 30, 2017). Medic suspended for ‘dishonesty’ over Ebola temperature. BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/health-39446355

Pidd, Helen; Parveen, Nazia (March 30, 2017). Doctor who lied about Ebola nurse temperature suspended for one month. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/hannah-ryan-doctor-lied-ebola-nurse-pauline-cafferkey-temperature-suspended-for-one-month

Associated Press (March 29, 2017). Doctor in Ebola case found guilty of misconduct in UK. CBC https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ebola-nurse-1.4045979

Pidd, Helen (March 27, 2017). Doctor was ‘dishonest’ in screening nurse who had Ebola, tribunal finds. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/27/doctor-was-dishonest-in-screening-nurse-who-had-ebola-tribunal-finds

Staff report (March 20, 2017). Doctor admits misleading over Ebola. BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/health-39327426

White, Steve (March 20, 2017). Doctor ‘helped conceal test results of Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey’ as she was ‘paralysed by fear.’ The Mirror https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/doctor-helped-conceal-test-results-10063543

Powell, Tom (March 20, 2017). Doctor misled medics over Ebola diagnosis. London Evening Standard https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/doctor-misled-medics-over-ebola-diagnosis-a3494466.html

Staff report (March 20, 2017). Doctor misled medics over Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey. The Scotsman https://www.scotsman.com/news/doctor-misled-medics-over-ebola-nurse-pauline-cafferkey-1453622

Belger, Tom (March 20, 2017). Liverpool doctor admits misleading officials over nurse with ebola. Liverpool Echo https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-doctor-admits-misleading-officials-12770373

Blevins, David (November 21, 2014). NHS Staff Head To Sierra Leone To Treat Ebola. Sky News https://news.sky.com/story/nhs-staff-head-to-sierra-leone-to-treat-ebola-10381612

Bell, Rachel (January 28, 2006). Women Unite, Reclaim the night! The F Word: Contemporary UK Feminism https://thefword.org.uk/2006/01/women_unite_reclaim_the_night/

Anti-trans coverage

Lane, Bernard (October 19, 2025). Don’t prejudge a trial: It is too soon to say that an ethical trial of puberty blockers is impossible. Gender Clinic News https://www.genderclinicnews.com/p/dont-prejudge-a-trial

Waters, Adele (September 29, 2025). Puberty blockers: Planned trial for gender questioning children should not proceed, say experts. BMJ, 390, r2044. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2044

Staff report (September 20, 2025). Can a clinical trial of puberty blockers in children experiencing gender distress be carried out ethically? Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender https://can-sg.org/2025/09/20/can-a-clinical-trial-of-puberty-blockers-in-children-experiencing-gender-distress-be-carried-out-ethically/

Staff report (September 16, 2025). Puberty Blocker Trial Ethics. Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender https://can-sg.org/puberty-blocker-trial-ethics/

Hayward, Eleanor (March 16, 2025). Why is NHS planning a clinical trial of banned puberty blockers? The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/what-are-puberty-blockers-original-use-93mv2fc0n

Ditum, Sarah; Hewitt, Rachel; Jones, Diane; Milinovich, Gia; Ryan, Hannah; Smith, Karen Ingala, Strinkovsky, Marina; Smith, Victoria, and Tunks, Kiri (Autumn/Winter 2024). An Oral History of the Gender War. The Radical Notion, Issue 12 https://theradicalnotion.org/an-oral-history-of-the-gender-war/

Block, Jennifer (October 30, 2024). Dispute arises over World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s involvement in WHO’s trans health guideline. BMJ, q2227. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2227

Maynard, Lily (July 10, 2020). The incredible adventures of #stickerwoman. https://lilymaynard.com/adventures-of-stickerwoman/

Bridge, Liv (January 9, 2020). Detransitioners are living proof the practices surrounding ‘trans kids’ need be questioned. Feminist Current https://www.feministcurrent.com/2020/01/09/detransitioners-are-living-proof-the-practices-surrounding-trans-kids-need-be-questioned/

Fisher, Dan (December 10, 2019). Medical Perspectives on Dysphoria and Detransition: Make More Noise. Uncommon Ground https://uncommongroundmedia.com/medical-perspectives-on-dysphoria-and-detransition-make-more-noise/

Selected writing by Ryan

Kozlowska, K., Ambler, G. R., DechĂȘne, S., Almaraz Almaraz, M. C., Eliacheff, C., Entwistle, K., Esteva de Antonio, I., GĂłmez Gil, E., Hofman, P., Hunter, P., Kaltiala, R., Koener, B., LandĂ©n, M., Ledrait, A., Maguire, A. M., Masson, C., O’Malley, S., Raven, M., Ryan, H., 
 Scher, S. (2024). Evolving national guidelines for the treatment of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria: International perspectives. Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments, 5(2), 89–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/26344041241269298

Bewley, S., Checkland, K., Garner, P., Kaltiala, R., McCartney, M., Heneghan, C., & Ryan, H. (2024). Legal clarity allows the use of GnRH analogues in research. BMJ, q1961. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1961

Media

Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender with Louise Irvine, Sinead Helyar, David Bell, and Hannah Ryan (September 16, 2025). Puberty Blocker Research: Ethics and Challenges. https://vimeo.com/1119567299

Make More Noise with Stella O’Malley, David Bell, Anna Hutchinson, and Hannah Ryan (January 12, 2020). Detransition: The Elephant in the Room. Part Two. Audio re-mastered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XskghZ59zAE

Make More Noise with Stella O’Malley, David Bell, Anna Hutchinson, and Hannah Ryan (December 6, 2019). Detransition: The Elephant in the Room. Part One. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQKoFXXFVs4

Resources

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

ResearchGate (researchgate.net)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)