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Imagine asking a child as young as 10 to consider whether they want to freeze their sperm or eggs in order to one day have babies, should they become infertile. It sounds patently insane. 

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However, that’s what researchers with the U.K.’s NHS will do to children who identify as transgender and who are approved to participate in a new puberty-blocking drug trial — the only legal way for minors to take these drugs in the U.K.  

The two-year experiment on 226 children, all of whom will receive puberty blockers, either from the outset or after one year, is set to begin in January 2026. It will compare results with 300 “gender incongruent” children who did not take the drugs. The study is meant to assess the risk versus benefit of the blockers, which begs the question of why any parent would ever dream of allowing their children to be used in this manner at all. 

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