Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced that under-18s will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics.
It has, however, kept the door open for a future U-turn, declaring in a clinical policy update:
We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of [puberty blockers] to make the treatment routinely available at this time. (Emphasis added)
The news has prompted many to ask why these drugs were prescribed to children in the first place, and why it took the NHS so long to ban them. Indeed, health bosses said their decision came after they “carefully considered” a 2020 review into the drugs, intended for use in the treatment of late stage prostate cancer, along with some more recent evidence.
Government ministers celebrated this as a “landmark decision,” although children will still be permitted to take puberty blockers as part of an upcoming clinical trial.
Miriam Cates, the Conservative Politician who co-chairs the ‘traditional values’ New Conservatives group of MPs, said the real scandal is that while Britons “expect the NHS … to be evidence-based,” an NHS transgender clinic was “driven by ideology” on this issue.
Reports show that almost all children referred to the subsequently discredited Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) within the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust were given puberty blockers.
While a BBC report on the decision to stop prescribing puberty blockers says the drugs simply “pause the physical changes of puberty” (emphasis added), Cates argued that they are in fact a “pathway to permanent change.” Gay rights activist Dennis Noel Kavanagh added that the word “pause” was “misleading” and “tells you all you need to know about this BBC article.”
Further anger was triggered when The Times revealed that GIDS staff who promoted puberty blockers will receive large payouts when the service closes later this month—only to be replaced by other, similar outfits. The newspaper quoted former whistleblowers who said their ex-colleagues are being “rewarded for malpractice.”
