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The U.K’s decision comes one week after the Biden administration doubled down on its advocacy for gender-affirming treatments by arguing before the Supreme Court that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries are necessary, safe, and beneficial to gender-confused children.
[UPDATE] The U.K. has announced that its ban on giving puberty blockers to those under 18 has been extended indefinitely, after finding the drugs cause significant risks to children while providing no benefits.
In 2022 Dr. Hilary Cass released her interim report showing that professionals at the Tavistock Clinic, the nation’s primary gender clinic, were pushing children into transitioning even as they ignored their other mental health issues and the reality that almost all children will come to accept their biological sex later in life.
In response, the U.K. permanently closed the Tavistock Gender Clinic, and in March it temporarily banned all healthcare providers from prescribing puberty blockers to anyone under 18 ( except for those enrolled in clinical trials), due to the uncertainties surrounding the efficacy and long-term effects of the drugs.
That ban was again extended in May following the release of Cass’s full review, which found that there was no evidence of a benefit to puberty blockers in treating children with gender dysphoria and there was evidence of potential serious harms.
Yesterday, the U.K. made the ban indefinite.
“The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has provided independent expert advice that there is currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children,” the government said in a statement.
The government cited both CHM’s and the Cass Review’s caution regarding puberty blockers, stating that the decision was made “in the best interests of the children.”
Health and Social Secretary Wes Streeting stated, “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.”
He continued, “Dr Cass’ 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.”
He added, “It is a scandal that medicine was given to vulnerable children without the proof that it was safe or effective.”
Cass also supported the indefinite ban, saying,
“Puberty blockers are powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks, and that is why I recommended that they should only be prescribed following a multi-disciplinary assessment and within a research protocol.
I support the government’s decision to continue restrictions on the dispensing of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria outside the NHS where these essential safeguards are not being provided.”
The U.K. also bans private prescribers and those in the “European Economic Area or Switzerland” from prescribing puberty blockers to minors.
Only those already using the drugs for gender incongruence or for other reasons are permitted to continue.
Streeting announced that the government will conduct clinical trials next year.
The government will review the ban again in 2027.
Transgender groups lamented the decision, going so far as to call it “discrimination,” while others praised the ban.
Helen Joyce of the Sex Matters advocacy organization, celebrated, saying that the decision “marks another step towards puberty blockers being relegated to a shameful chapter of history, in which parents and health professionals were emotionally blackmailed into harming children in the name of ‘progress.’”
In the U.S., this same issue came the forefront last week when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over whether or not states have the constitutional authority to ban puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in children for the purpose of trying to change their sex. The Biden administration brought the case, claiming that Tennessee’s law prohibiting the use of drugs and surgeries to treat gender-confused children is unconstitutional.
Early on in the two-hour-long hearing, Justice Samuel Alito questioned why U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar would ignore the findings of the Cass Review and the decisions by the U.K. and other European countries to ban so-called “gender affirming care” in children.
The Supreme Court will render its opinion on the case of United States v. Skrmetti by early next summer.
{Published on March 15, 2024} Children in England can no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender clinics, the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) announced on Tuesday.
The decision came after a 2022 review that led to the order to close the nation’s Tavistock Clinic and a public consultation period. The review, led by Dr. Hillary Cass, found that Tavistock, which was the primary gender clinic for the U.K., was rushing children into gender transitions without properly examining other mental health issues. Concern over the routine prescription of puberty blockers arose from the dramatic increase in those seeking gender transitions.
Cass explained that puberty blockers were typically used in those with gender dysphoria, which was a small number of overwhelmingly male patients, because those children would soon come to accept their sex. However, in recent years, the majority of patients had suddenly shifted to a large number of girls later in their childhood, according to Cass.
“We do not fully understand the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of both sexuality and gender identity through the early teen years, so by extension we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation,” she said.
“We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process.”
She further explained, “Brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences.”
Indeed, many other medical experts have cautioned that puberty blockers do not just “pause” puberty, which can be restarted later. Some studies have shown that puberty blockers can cause brain swelling, negative impacts on bone density, stunted growth, higher rates of mental health deterioration and self-harm, sexual dysfunction, and other issues.
Following the review, Tavistock was ordered to be closed, which is set to happen this month, and smaller local clinics would be opened.
Cass wrote that those local clinics should “maintain a broad clinical perspective in order to embed the care of children and young people with gender uncertainty within a broader child and adolescent health context.”
The National Health Service (NHS) later warned against even socially transitioning a child, which includes allowing them to use a name and pronouns of the opposite sex or living their life as the opposite sex. NHS cautioned that usually “gender incongruence does not persist into adulthood,” adding that the clinical approach “has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that the child may experience in returning to the original gender role upon entering puberty if the gender incongruence does not persist.”
Now, the U.K. will no longer permit gender clinics to prescribe puberty blockers to children except those who are part of clinical research. As a result, there are currently only about 100 children in the U.K. on puberty blockers, all of them in clinical trials. They will be allowed to continue using the drugs.
Health Minister Maria Caulfield praised the decision to restrict puberty blockers, stating,
“We have always been clear that children’s safety and wellbeing is paramount, so we welcome this landmark decision by the NHS. 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.”
Ironically, while England is limiting gender transitions in children, medical authorities in the United States are aggressively moving ahead to incorporate what is euphemistically called gender-affirming care as the standard of care for any child that even suspects they might have gender dysphoria.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released guidance advocating for puberty blockers as well as cross-sex hormones and social transitions in minors, writing:
“For transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, early gender-affirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being as it allows the child or adolescent to focus on social transitions and can increase their confidence while navigating the healthcare system.”
Meanwhile, major medical associations including the Endocrine Society, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have all issued support for gender transitions.
The AAP, the largest professional association of pediatricians in the U.S., with a membership of nearly 70,000 primary care and sub-specialist pediatricians, released a statement as early as 2018 advocating an unquestioning approach of gender affirmation, including the use of puberty blockers, social transitions, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for youth. The AAP then reaffirmed its support in 2023 despite evidence showing the harms of such treatments.
In fact, zealous demands that parents and doctors unquestioningly affirm a child’s gender identity extends to schools where school officials have routinely set children on gender support plans without informing parents, even meticulously hiding gender transitions from them.
Aspiring adoptive and foster care parents who have opposed putting a child on puberty blockers or gender transition surgeries have found themselves banned from the opportunity to give children a home.
Moreover, there are now reports of state agencies allegedly taking children away from their parents because they refused to immediately transition their child.
It leaves one to wonder: Why are those in positions of power and influence in America so militant about pushing as many children as quickly as possible into gender transitions — especially when the U.K. and other countries are withdrawing their support for the same cultural and medical approach?
Many in the U.S. claim that if a child’s gender identity is not affirmed they will commit suicide. That argument is built off of flawed studies that neglect to take into account a child’s other mental health issues and equates a vague idea of thoughts of suicide or threats of suicide to actual suicide attempts. It is possible that a child or teenager could believe they are the opposite gender and in their distress commit suicide. That does not mean that it should be accepted medical practice to chemically castrate children in order to protect them from the possibility. A person whose life has been ruined by puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mutilation surgeries may also commit suicide due to their distress over being unable to regain their pre-transition health.
et that doesn’t stop transgender activists and therapists from manipulating parents by accusatorily asking, “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?”
But Sir Louis Appleby, a researcher and adviser to the U.K. government on suicide prevention, says that argument is disrespectful and not found in evidence. He recently posted on X,
“Children with gender distress may face bullying, isolation & family conflict, reasons to be alert to suicide risk. Empathic support is vital but evidence that puberty blockers reduce risk is weak & unreliable. Invoking suicide in this debate is mistaken & potentially harmful.”
He then wrote,
“We need to see an end to that line about choosing a living daughter or dead son. It is not based on evidence. May add to distress in young people & mislead worried parents. Deeply insensitive to 200 families/yr to whom the suicide of a teenager is more than a slogan.”
What numerous studies and the testimonies of detransitioners (who the pro-transgender advocates try to silence) now show is that the majority of children who are set on the gender transition regimen have numerous other mental health issues that are going untreated, including autism and depression. Despite this, therapists and doctors who spend 30 minutes with a patient before immediately diagnosing them with gender dysphoria will tell the child’s parents that the only solution is unquestioning gender affirmation.
So, what’s really the desire behind this gender transition push? It certainly isn’t to help children. Not only have numerous other nations limited gender transitions for children due to the mounting evidence that they are harmful, but any reasonable person could tell you that it is deranged to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or remove healthy body parts simply because after a lesson in school or hours watching transgender influencers on social media, a child suddenly believes he or she is stuck in the wrong body.
Is it money? Gender transitions do provide significant profits for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, clinics, and doctors; in fact, transgender transitions ensure a perpetual supply of money because the treatments ensure lifelong patients. Is it to achieve the goal of separating children from their parents? Is it the devotion to sexual deviancy and LGBT ideology? Is it an attempt to sterilize more children in order to reduce the population? Is it a full-on rebellion against God’s created design?
It is likely a mix of all of these motivations, but what’s adding to the problem is a populace that has been conditioned to acquiesce to the “wisdom” of “the science” and to suppress their own critical thinking and common sense out of fear of being called “transphobic.”
The bottom line is that children, unfortunately, are the unwitting targets of this insidious, destructive movement, and our nation must find the will and the courage to put a stop to it.
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