PUBERTY-blockers will be banned for children across the UK indefinitely, it has been announced.
Medicines previously prescribed to transgender people under the age of 18 to give them gender-affirming healthcare will no longer be available, with the Department for Health and Social Care saying they presented an “unacceptable safety risk” to children.
The department has confirmed that the ban will apply across the UK.
Their prescription was previously suspended in Scotland after the publication of the Cass Review, authored by Dr Hilary Cass (below).
Responding to the announcement on Wednesday, Cass said puberty blockers were “powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks”.
But the announcement will be met with dismay by transgender people and campaign groups who say the drugs stop young transgender people from developing bodies during puberty which diverge even further from their gender identity.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said there would be a clinical trial into the use of puberty blockers next year to establish the “evidence base for the use of this medicine”.
He added: “Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people.
“Dr Cass’s review also raised safety concerns around the lack of evidence for these medical treatments. We need to act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people, and follow the expert advice.
“We are working with NHS England to open new gender identity services, so people can access holistic health and wellbeing support they need.”
But Streeting was challenged by the Scottish Greens, who said puberty blockers – while a "very small part" of trans healthcare – could be a "lifeline" for some young trans people.
Puberty blockers had been temporarily banned by the previous government in May under emergency legislation.
The latest move makes this ban indefinite and “closes a loophole that posed a risk to the safety of children and young people”, NHS England said.
Cass said at the time of her landmark review 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”.
Streeting (below) said the move was influenced by "evidence" and not "political pressure".
Speaking in the Commons, the Health Secretary added: "Dr Cass’s review painted a picture of a service unable to cope with demand. Children and young people face unacceptably long waits for care, with some children passing into adulthood before their first appointment, leaving them facing a dangerous cliff edge."
NHS England is exploring creating a new "follow through service" for people aged 17 to 25 experiencing gender dysphoria.
Addressing the fraught nature of the debate around trans healthcare and rights, Streeting said it was "not easy being a trans kid in our country today", adding: "The trans community is at the wrong end of all of the statistics for mental ill health, self-harm and suicide."
Streeting added: “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.
“I am convinced that the full implementation of the Cass review will deliver material improvements in the wellbeing, safety and dignity of trans people of all ages and this Government will work with them to help them live freely, equally, and with the dignity everyone in our country deserves.”
Greens MSP Maggie Chapman (below) said the party would be writing to the First Minister "to see what can be done to protect young trans people in Scotland, and trans people’s fundamental human right to receive adequate healthcare".
She said that Streeting's decision would make young trans peoples' lives "even harder", adding: "The prescription of blockers is a very small part of gender identity clinic pathways within Scotland, with under-16s primarily receiving talking therapies. This medication is a lifeline to some who live with gender dysphoria while they await adulthood.
“Puberty brings further divergence between trans people’s gender identity and assigned sex. Their lives are put on hold, often for decades, until they can receive the proper care and medical treatment they need to live authentically.
“There is already widely accepted prescribing of hormones for cis teenagers, to regulate periods for example. Why should trans teens not be given the same access to healthcare?"
