Actions speak louder than words. In one of the first tests of his tenure, the Health Secretary Wes Streeting has put clinical evidence and child welfare above ideology and intimidation in pledging to persist with a ban on the use of puberty blockers for children. Streeting confirmed that he intends to retain a ban on the prescription of puberty blockers to under 18s across both NHS organisations and at private clinics. JK Rowling has described the move as ‘humane’ and ‘considered’. She’s right.
There are no shortage of challenges facing the new Health Secretary
‘Puberty blockers’ (known more accurately as gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) can halt the production of sex hormones. Some of the known, possible side-effects range from weight gain to impacting bone growth and density, but the long-term impacts may – for instance – impact brain development and cognition. Fundamentally however, the impact of their use is poorly understood.
Despite a lack of clinical evidence, puberty blockers had been prescribed to gender-questioning children in recent years. The practice was eventually halted by the last government in the wake of the findings of the independent ‘Cass Review’, a comprehensive review of NHS gender identity services, which both the Conservatives and Labour pledged to implement in their manifestos.
Cass concluded that there is a ‘very narrow indication for the use of puberty blockers in birth-registered males as the start of a medical transition pathway in........