In a move to protect the wellbeing of the most vulnerable, England’s National Health Service (NHS) revealed this week that it will no longer prescribe puberty blockers to children.
Citing safety concerns and a review of published evidence by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the agency now prohibits the controversial treatments on minors. Critics long argued that puberty blockers were allowed due to politics and not medical science.
For once in the ongoing war over gender and so-called “transitioning,” sanity ruled the day.
In a policy document released Tuesday, NHS England explained the action. “We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of PSH to make the treatment routinely available at this time.”
This research followed a dramatic surge in children facing this “treatment.”
Wrote about how, even though the politics behind child transition always seemed mad, you'd have thought the self-appointed experts had *some* idea what they were doing https://t.co/libUaZtjvA
— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) March 13, 2024
In 2012 there were 250 kids referred to the Gender Identity Development Service, a U.K. national health clinic. That total soared to a startling 5,000 in 2022.
Many experts warned that this change was due to the pressures of the transgender movement and the ensuing contagion effect. It was not, they cautioned, based on sound medical science.
These hormones are life changing, resulting in permanently weakened bones and other side effects. They will now only be administered to children through clinical research trials.
Despite the official decision, puberty blockers remain available through private “off-labels” and may be obtained at non-NHS-based gender clinics.
Some, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, seek to close this loophole.
A 2020 review of gender identity services fueled the backlash to these controversial treatments. It focused on pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, who was said to be pushing vulnerable children into these irreversible medications.
The contentious Gender Identity Development Service in London faces closure due to the report’s findings.
These treatments halt natural physical changes experienced by girls and boys at puberty. Breast development in girls stops as does facial hair growth in boys.
Meanwhile, the female recipients put on muscle while the males develop breast tissue. There are no long term studies of the effects of these puberty blockers on young people, but that did not stop doctors from prescribing them to thousands of children.
