Puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria will be banned indefinitely in the UK due to the “unacceptable safety risk”, the government has announced.
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said there is a need to “act with caution” and “follow the expert advice” in caring for this “vulnerable group of young people”.
Mr Streeting announced an indefinite ban on the prescription of puberty blockers to children after the Commission on Human Medicines found there is “an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children.”
A review by the body found children were prescribed the medication having just completed an online questionnaire and having had just one Zoom call.
The health secretary said any breach of the order would be a criminal offence.
In a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, Mr Streeting said: “I asked the Commission on Human Medicines to look at the current environment for prescribing puberty blockers, and we launched a targeted consultation.
“After thoroughly examining all the available evidence, they have concluded that prescribing puberty blockers to children for the purposes of gender dysphoria in the current prescribing environment represents, and I quote, ‘an unacceptable safety risk’. Of particular concern to the Commission was whether these children and their families were provided with enough time and information to give their full and informed consent.”
He added: “On the basis of their findings, I am acting on the Commission’s advice to put an indefinite order in place to restrict the sale or supply of puberty blockers through a prescription issued by either a private UK prescriber or a prescriber registered outside the UK for under-18s.”
The NHS announced in March that children would no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, with the then-Conservative government saying this would help ensure care is based on evidence and is in the “best interests of the child”.
The following month, the Cass Review concluded that the quality of studies claiming to show beneficial effects for children and young people with gender dysphoria was “poor”.
In May, a ban on puberty blockers was introduced by the then government with emergency legislation, preventing the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricting NHS provision to within clinical trials.
A trial is due to start next into the impact and effectiveness of puberty blockers on children. On Monday reports by the BBC revealed scientists are facing various ethical concerns over the trial.
Dr Cass – now Baroness Cass – said at the time of her final report into children’s gender care that a single Dutch study, “suggesting puberty blockers may improve psychological wellbeing for a narrowly defined group of children with gender incongruence”, had formed the basis for their use to “spread at pace to other countries”.
She said she supported the government’s decision to continue restrictions on the dispensing of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria outside the NHS.
More than 6,200 children and young people are on gender services’ waiting lists.
Concluding his statement, Mr Streeting said: “In the past few months, I have met with young trans people who have either have been, may be or will be affected by the decisions I and my predecessor have taken. I have listened to their concerns, their fears and their anxieties, and I want to talk to them directly now.
“I know it’s not easy being a trans kid in our country today, the trans community is at the wrong end of all of the statistics for mental ill health, self-harm and suicide.
“I can’t pretend to know what that’s like, but I do know what it’s like to feel you have to bury a secret about yourself, to be afraid of who you are, to be bullied for it, and then to experience the liberating experience of coming out.
“I know it won’t feel like it based on the decisions I’m taking today, but I really do care about this and so does this Government. I am determined to improve the quality of care and access to healthcare for all trans people.”
