Children in England will no longer receive puberty blocker prescriptions, the National Health Service (NHS) of England said, confirming that the medicine will only be provided to youth who were taking part in clinical research trials. Children can still receive puberty blockers through some private practices.
Puberty blockers are used to delay the onset of puberty by blocking the body from making sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen. The hormonal suppressants do not reverse any changes that have already happened, but can block physical changes like breast development and facial hair.
“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 khbrknews,” an NHS England policy document released on Tuesday read. The decision comes after a public consultation on the topic, interim policy, and independent review of gender identity services for underage children, the NHS England said.
From 2021-2022, more than 5,000 youth were referred to the Gender Identity Development Service, a national health clinic in the U.K., compared to less than 250 a decade earlier. The clinic is closing at the end of March.
Dr. Hilary Cass, a consultant pediatrician and former President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, led the independent review and said that there was insufficient long-term evidence of what happens to youth who are prescribed puberty blockers.
In contrast, leading U.S. medical associations have approved of puberty blockers as medically accepted treatment for transgender and nonbinary youth.
The move has been widely criticized by LGBTQ+ groups. Mermaids, an organization that supports gender-diverse children and their families, called the decision “deeply disappointing, and a further restriction of support offered to trans children and young people through the NHS.”
Some government leaders have expressed support. “We have…
