New landmark guidance from England’s National Health Service (NHS) bans the use of puberty blockers for children, citing fears of permanent damage to minors’ development and a lack of evidence to support claims of “safety or clinical effectiveness.”
On Tuesday, March 12, the NHS released a policy document regarding the medical care of children experiencing gender incongruence which bans the use of puberty blockers for minors. Puberty blockers, which purportedly “pause” adolescent development, are often used “off-label” when given to gender dysphoric children and typically consist of multiple doses of Lupron (leuprolide), a drug that has been used to “chemically castrate” sex offenders, and has known side effects including hair loss, weight gain, loss of bone density, the development of breasts, and potentially disrupt brain development.
“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,” the NHS document states. Under the new policy, no one under the age of 18 will be eligible to receive puberty-blocking drugs unless part of a clinical study. According to the CBC, one such study is scheduled to begin later this year.
“[C]hildren’s safety and wellbeing is paramount, so we welcome this landmark decision by the NHS,” Government Health Minister Maria Caulfield said. “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.”
The guidance was based on a comprehensive review of the use of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogs, which are medications that stop a person’s pituitary gland from creating the hormones that stimulate the production of sex hormones, which are used off-label as “puberty blockers” for adolescents with gender dysphoria. The review, conducted by Dr. Hilary Cass, was commissioned following a surge in adolescents who were referred the the Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) to receive puberty-suppressing drugs. GIDS was operated by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, however, The Tavistock Centre, was set to close after a litany of lawsuits were filed against the clinic for unethical practices.
In 2022, the NHS proposed guidance that would discourage healthcare providers from socially and medically transitioning gender dysphoric minors because they may be in a “transient” stage of development. The NHS added that gender incongruence may not always persist past puberty and into adolescence.
Chloe Cole, a female de-transitioner who identified as a transgender male and underwent medical treatments for gender dysphoria when she was a minor, celebrated the new policy, writing on X, “We are winning! The USA is close behind. Major changes since I started telling my cautionary tale a couple years ago. Almost half of the country has put laws in place to stop the sterilization of children.”
