Britain is to ban indefinitely the use of puberty blockers for young people under 18 with gender dysphoria, except in clinical trials, the government said on Wednesday, making permanent a set of temporary restrictions put in place earlier this year.
Announcing the decision, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said he was acting after having received advice from medical experts, who concluded that there was an unacceptable safety risk in prescribing puberty blockers without further research into their impact.
“We need to act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people, and follow the expert advice,” Mr. Streeting said in a statement. He added: “We are setting up a clinical trial into the use of puberty blockers next year, to establish a clear evidence base for the use of this medicine.”
The move, which the government said would apply across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, follows steps taken by the previous Conservative government to restrict the use of such drugs.
The country’s National Health Service stopped the routine prescription of puberty blocker treatments to anyone under 18 as treatment for gender dysphoria following a landmark review into gender identity services undertaken by Hilary Cass, one of the country’s top pediatricians.
Her report, published in April, concluded that gender medicine was operating on “shaky foundations” when it came to the evidence for some medical treatments, including prescribing hormones to pause puberty or to change physical characteristics.
Puberty blockers were banned temporarily for the treatment of gender dysphoria in those under 18 in May.
A challenge to that ruling, brought by campaigners for young trans people, failed in July when Britain’s High Court ruled the ban was lawful.
Under the change announced on Wednesday, the existing restriction will be made indefinite, though it will be reviewed in 2027. Young people who already had a valid prescription for puberty blockers before a certain date this year — depending on where they live — will be able to continue to receive them.
In a statement, Dr. Cass supported the decision. “Puberty blockers are powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks, and that is why I recommended that they should only be prescribed following a multidisciplinary assessment and within a research protocol,” she said.
However a recent report from the Council of Europe, an international organization established to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law, said there were “ethical implications of only offering treatment to a small group of patients” through clinical trials, because “for many young people the only way to receive treatment is to participate in the trial, therefore calling into question whether consent can be constituted as free and informed in these situations.”
Speaking in Parliament, Mr. Streeting said that 6,237 children and young people were on waiting lists for gender services. He added that he had recently met and listened to the concerns of young trans people.
“I know it’s not easy being a trans kid in our country today, the trans community is at the wrong end of all of the statistics for mental ill health, self-harm and suicide,” he said.
Mr. Streeting alluded to his experience as a gay man, adding: “I can’t pretend to know what that’s like, but I do know what it’s like to feel you have to bury a secret about yourself, to be afraid of who you are, to be bullied for it, and then to experience the liberating experience of coming out.”
Britain’s main opposition party, the Conservatives, welcomed Wednesday’s decision. But Sian Berry, a lawmaker for the Green Party, described it as a “worrying decision” in a statement on social media. She added: “The same medication continues to be used safely by young people for other reasons,” in a reference to the use of puberty blockers to treat precocious puberty, where puberty occurs at an unusually early age. Ms. Green suggested that the decision to ban its use by young trans people could therefore amount to discrimination.
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