Citing potential harm to children’s bodies, England halted giving out puberty blockers to gender identity clinics on Tuesday.
In an article published by the Telegraph, the National Health Service in England says, “We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty-suppressing hormones to make the treatment routinely available at this time.”
This decision comes after the NHS conducted a public consultation and independent review of transgender services among children in 2018.
Puberty blockers will only be released to transgender youths who are part of clinical research.
These blockers are used to delay the changes in children who are at the onset of puberty.
“Experimental drugs with huge harms should never have been given to children in the first place. Finally, common sense, scientific fact, and medical ethics have triumphed,” TalkTV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer said.
In July 2022, the NHS started to accept appeals to stop this practice.
Dr. Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, warned these drugs could delay the maturation of adolescents’ brains, potentially rewiring neural circuits in a way that cannot be reversed, and said there was a lack of long-term evidence and data collection on their safety and effectiveness.
Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss called for the ban to be extended to private practices and called upon members of Parliament to support her amendment to the Health and Equality Acts bill to prohibit such prescriptions for children.
“I welcome NHS England’s decision to end the routine prescription of puberty blockers to children for gender dysphoria.”
“I urge the government to back my bill on Friday, which will reinforce this in law and also prevent these drugs from being supplied privately,” added Truss
Health Minister Maria Caulfield emphasized that this move intends to protect children’s safety and well-being.
“Ending the routine prescription of puberty blockers will help ensure that care is based on evidence, expert clinical opinion, and is in the best interests of the child.”
In February, a German study found that the puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones given to children are “low quality” and have “significant conceptual and methodological flaws.”
Health institutions in the UK, Finland, and Norway agree that there is no sufficient evidence to prove that the benefits brought by puberty blockers and hormone procedures supersede their risks.
The NHS had previously been in the process of banning puberty blockers outside of strict clinical trials for minors, arguing that many trans-identifying children grow out of it. Norway recommended that these procedures be classified as experimental treatments.
