Minors who suffer gender dysphoria They will no longer receive puberty blockers, according to the United Kingdom’s public health service (NHS).
The NHS, one of the pioneering health services in this type of treatment, has now decided to back down, arguing that there is no scientific evidence how safe it is to take these types of medications or whether they are clinically effective to justify their prescription to children and young people “in transition.”
“We have come to the conclusion that There is insufficient evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty-suppressing hormones. so that treatment is routinely available at this time,” the health service has assured.
Puberty blockers stop the physical changes that puberty brings to a child’s body, such as breast development or facial hair. The NHS decision It means that the new regional care services for children under 18 with gender dysphoria, which will open next month, will not use them as part of the treatment.
From now on, children and young people will only be able to obtain them if they participate in a clinical trial. At least one of these trials is scheduled to begin later this year, but no details have been released about who will be eligible to join it.
The NHS decision reaffirms the position it took last year on puberty blockers after the Dra. Hilary Casswhich is leading an independent review into gender identity services for under-18s, issued a statement against the routine prescribing of these medications.
In late 2020, NHS England asked Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, to investigate these treatments. At that moment, the Tavistock clinic and Portman of London supplied them at will, an action that received criticism from experts and which ended with the order to close that clinic, which will take effect at the end of this month.
Behind the Tavistock closure, two new specialist centers will open: Great Ormond Street in London and the Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool. However, the services these hospitals will provide will, according to NHS sources, “fundamentally different from the current service, in line with Cass recommendations”.
The UK Government has welcomed the NHS’s decision. “We welcome this historic decision by the NHS to end the routine prescribing of puberty blockers and this guidance which recognizes that care should be evidence-basedin the clinical opinion of experts and in the best interests of the child,” said Maria Caulfield, Minister of Health.