Confirmation comes after public consultation and decision to close Gender Identity Development Service in London
Children who have gender dysphoria will no longer be given puberty blockers, NHS England has said, ahead of a radical change in how it cares for them.
There is not enough evidence about either how safe they are to take or whether they are clinically effective to justify prescribing them to children and young people who are transitioning, it added.
The government welcomed NHS England’s “landmark decision”, which it said was “in the best interests of children”.
NHS England made the announcement in response to the results of a public consultation on the ban, which it first proposed last June, and a review of available evidence by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
A spokesperson said: “NHS England has carefully considered the evidence review conducted by NICE and further published evidence available to date.
“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.”
Puberty blockers arrest the physical changes in a child’s body that puberty brings, such as the development of breasts or facial hair. The NHS’s decision means that the new regional services caring for under-18s with gender dysphoria, which open next month, will not use them as part of the treatment.
From now on, children and young people will only be able to get them if they are taking part in a clinical trial. At least one such trial is due to start later this year, but no details, such as who will be eligible to join it, have been published.
The NHS’s decision reaffirms the position it adopted last year on puberty blockers after Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading an independent review into gender identity services for under-18s, issued interim advice warning against routine prescription of the drugs.
In late 2020 NHS England asked Cass, an ex-president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, to look into gender identity services. At the time they were provided for the whole of England solely by the NHS’s Tavistock and Portman mental health trust in London. Its treatment of under-18s with gender dysphoria, including its use of puberty blockers, had attracted criticism.
Fewer than 100 children and young people are taking puberty blockers.
The trust’s gender identity development service is closing at the end of this month. The first two new centres will open in April at two specialist children’s hospitals: Great Ormond Street in London and Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool. NHS England hopes to ultimately create seven or eight centres.
However, the services they provide will be what NHS sources say will be “fundamentally different from the current service, in line with the Cass recommendations”.
Maria Caulfield, the health minister, said: “We welcome this landmark decision by the NHS to end the routine prescription of puberty blockers and this guidance which recognises that care must be based on evidence, expert clinical opinion and in the best interests of the child.
“The NHS must ensure its Gender Identity Services protect, support and act in the best interests of children and we will continue to work with NHS England to protect children in this area.”
Stonewall voiced its concern about the new policy. “All trans young people deserve access to high quality, timely healthcare”, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ rights charity said.
“For some, an important part of this care comes in the form of puberty blockers, a reversible treatment that delays the onset of puberty, prescribed by expert endocrinologists, giving the young person extra time to evaluate their next steps. We are concerned that NHS England will be putting new prescriptions on hold until a research protocol is up and running at the end of 2024.”
Sex Matters, which campaigns on how sex is used in law and other environments, praised NHS England for what it said was a return to evidence-based policymaking in relation to gender identity services.
“This a momentous development in the course correction of NHS England’s approach to treating childhood gender distress,” said Maya Forstater, its executive director.
“The significance of NHS England’s statement that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty blockers cannot be overstated, given the success that activist lobby groups have had in portraying them as a harmless and reversible treatment.”
Removed by mod
Providing transphobes with more fuel for their hate (the only “evidence” I have found to back this bullshit is that puberty blockers “don’t significantly impact suicidal thoughts and dysphoria”, but why would they on their own? It’s only wilfully ignorant people who equate them to transitioning, when they’re nothing of the fucking sort), while depriving children of the healthcare they need - two birds with one stone for the the fascist government hiding behind “medical concerns” for people they would clearly rather see dead.
I hate it here more and more every passing day.
Bullshit. Sweden has had similar recommendations in place for years, due to a lack of scientific evidence.
There is no lack of evidence, only an abundance of transphobia in the medical fields, and in society at large. Thanks for demonstrating some for us, now fuck off.
Goddamn are you a rancid fucking asshole, such vitriol.
They site lack of evidence based on a compiled report, same as the NHS and wth do you have?
They don’t on their own, except compared to those who didn’t get them.
Puberty increases distress and suicidal thoughts. Or did they just not consider that?
Puberty increases distress and suicidal thoughts. Or did they just not consider that?
they did consider it, it’s precisely why they’re denying trans kids access to blockers. Because those making these decisions don’t want to help trans people, they want trans people to no longer exist.
As expected. But there will be some twisted logic in their report.
Trying to find logic in bigoty will never lead you anywhere…
I can highly recommend PhilosophyTube’s video about the topic, if you feel wildly unfamiliar with the Gender Identity Clinics situation. It’s definitely not a 2 minute summary, but it’s a phenomenal video and super interesting, especially as an outsider like me. Here you go!
I’ve not come across this video, and it’s a bit long for my frazzled brain, but I will try giving it a watch in short segments, and I’m sure others will benefit, thanks for sharing!
E: I don’t really watch much on youtube, and while I have heard of Abigail, this is the first of her videos I’ve actually watched, and she really is fantastic. I’m only 20 odd minutes in but I’ve already cried and laughed and have learned names for institutional behaviours that I have and am battling against myself, not only with the NHS and social services, but letting agents and landlords (her reaction to the idea that they don’t discriminate was spot on), and other service providers, who are more than happy to discriminate because they know that while they wrote the law, the government put the burden of enforcing it (not just raising the complaint) on to the individual being discriminated against, which is enraging, but exactly as intended. I had to take a break because it’s actually hitting a little too close to home with some stuff I’m trying to fight at the moment…
But yeah, definitely thanks for sharing.
Happy I could be of help :D
This is the best summary I could come up with:
NHS England made the announcement in response to the results of a public consultation on the ban, which it first proposed last June, and a review of available evidence by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
The NHS’s decision reaffirms the position it adopted last year on puberty blockers after Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading an independent review into gender identity services for under-18s, issued interim advice warning against routine prescription of the drugs.
In late 2020 NHS England asked Cass, an ex-president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, to look into gender identity services.
Maria Caulfield, the health minister, said: “We welcome this landmark decision by the NHS to end the routine prescription of puberty blockers and this guidance which recognises that care must be based on evidence, expert clinical opinion and in the best interests of the child.
“This a momentous development in the course correction of NHS England’s approach to treating childhood gender distress,” said Maya Forstater, its executive director.
“The significance of NHS England’s statement that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty blockers cannot be overstated, given the success that activist lobby groups have had in portraying them as a harmless and reversible treatment.”
The original article contains 723 words, the summary contains 213 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Already in place in Sweden since a few years back:
Complete insanity to subject children to life altering therapy without comprehensive evidentiary basis. It’s the right call.
Complete insanity to subject children to life altering therapy without comprehensive evidentiary basis. It’s the right call.
Says the person who clearly hasn’t looked at the safety, efficacy and reversibility of puberty blockers.
So giving the child medication that’s been comprehensively studied on an evidentiary basis and found to be safe, so that they might delay a life-altering thing until they’re old enough to decide is “complete insanity”?
But denying that safe medication to them to force them to go through a puberty that might not be in accordance with their gender identity, possibly deeply psychologically (and indirectly even physically sometimes) traumatising them. That’s “sanity”?
You know what’s complete insanity? Allowing people without any knowledge on the subject to think their opinions matter more than doctors’.
There isn’t enough evidence to claim it’s safe, therefore the ban, both in Britain and Sweden. How is this not getting trough?
Except there is, they’ve been widely used for decades. (Mainly for precocious puberty for cis people.)
We have even longitudinal studies about the long term safety.
We also have research showing endocrine intervention is most times more effective than psychiatric medication to trans people.
That’s the medical consensus. And it’s being challenged by non-medical experts claiming they know the state of the literature without having read it or without having been educated on the subject, because they have some sort of internalised “icky” feeling towards trans people that populist politicians keep exploiting.
Wake up and read the science, or shut up
Jesus fucking christ then go dig up all your fucking sources. I have already linked mine.
You haven’t linked any science on the matter at all.
You’ve linked a page that fearmongers about trans people just like conservatives did when homosexuality was removed from criminal law. (Look up some of the news stories from Sweden around that time.)
It’s the same “no but we don’t need to believe the science to make our decisions” bullshit it’s always been. Just like I said, people wholly ignorant on the subject, like you, think that linking some page you’ve not even read “proves” you right, when that page has literally no science on it and the text isn’t written by doctors.
(I don’t think you’ll read it and even if you you’ll think “but what has this got to do with the topic”, because you don’t understand even the basics, like what the medication is we’re discussing and what it’s used for.)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9793415/
This should be pretty clear even for the less versed reader
#The novel findings provided by the study of Nos and colleagues add to the growing body of work demonstrating that GnRHa therapy is a safe and necessary component of transgender care, especially for the child or adolescent with gender dysphoria.
There’s literally nothing that would make you admit you’re wrong, despite not knowing the first thing about the subject you’re talking about.
Yes, your one quick google search really proved your point there. I’m sure you tried really hard to understand the whole issue in the two minutes it took you to skim an article and make sure it confirmed your bias.
They didn’t even link any science.
They linked an article in Swedish saying how the bureaucrats are afraid.
There’s nothing scientific about their link.
It’s essentially the same thing tobacco companies kept trying to do for decades “no no we don’t have enough science yet, we can’t say that conclusively, no no, the science isn’t in yet” despite mountains of evidence showing smoking is harmful.
It’s the same thing now with trans healthcare. They like to chant “There’s no evidence” while ignoring the actual evidence, of which there is a metric fuckton of
It’s because they don’t care about the science or the kids. They never did.
GTFOH with your wilful ignorance, transphobe - puberty blockers aren’t even permanent, though they are life altering in the sense that they prevent the suicide of trans children.
Which is clearly why giving it to them bothers bigots like you so much.
Don’t call me a transphobe you cunt. You don’t even know the meaning of the word.
I’m just forwarding directives given by the ministries of Sweden. You can call them transphobes too, and you probably will, as anything that threatens your bizarre world view is.
bizarre world view
There it is.
Lmmfao, fucking typical - bigot goes around spreading wilfully ignorant hate, then plays the victim when they get called out for being a bigot spreading wilfully ignorant hate, prioritising their hurt feelings over the literal lives of other.
Here’s a hint - if you don’t want to be called a transphobe, don’t behave like a fucking transphobe. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Fucking transphobic clown, you and the “ministries of Sweden”… 🤡🤦♀️🤣
Yeah whatever, you cope, you struggle.
They’re not struggling they’re fighting. For every asshole like you there’s someone like me that cares about facts and data. Someone that marches with them simply because it’s the right thing to do.
Your hate is based on bullshit rhetoric and feelings. You’re on the wrong side of history and you’re losing. Don’t worry. You won’t be remembered as the bigot that you are. We’ll make sure that you’re forgotten entirely. We’ll make a better world for your kids and their kids whether you like it or not.
Removed by mod
How are puberty blockers mutilating anyone? Why do people like you pretend to care about these kids at all when it’s obvious that your opinions are built on willfully ignorant hate? “Crazy drugs” lmao. Y’all tell on yourselves.
Removed by mod
So. Bone to pick. Gender is a made up society thing. 100%. It’s a performance, and gender change happens all the time. When people ‘pass’ you’ll never know. Do not confuse this with sex.
Sex is biological. And biology is messy. Do you have problems when innersexed children are ‘corrected’ to fit in a binary?
Nobody is brainwashing children. Stop pretending to care about the kids. You’re not fooling anyone.
Complete insanity to subject children to life altering wrong puberty.
Ftfy
Kids shouldn’t be making any decisions that aren’t fully reversible.
So. The whole reason puberty blockers are used then?
it’s amazing how gender critical hate a treatment that has been around for 30 years primarily to treat cis children who are going through precocious puberty.
Removed by mod
Another ignorant person unaware of what “gender” means.
Don’t worry about replying, I’m gonna block you because you have nothing worthy of saying to anyone.
No of course not
