BAN ON PUBERTY BLOCKERS TO BE MADE INDEFINITE IN THE UK – The legislation announced by the Health Secretary Wes Streeting will be reviewed in 2027
The ban on giving puberty blockers to under-18s questioning their gender identify is to be made permanent, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced.
Streeting told MPs he was making the temporary ban introduced in May indefinite across the UK, following a consultation and advice from the Commission on Human Medicines – calling the way the drugs had been used a “scandal”. The expert group said prescribing the drugs to children for gender dysphoria was an “unacceptable safety risk” in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children. It recommends indefinite restrictions while work is done to ensure the safety of children and young people.
The country’s leading gender clinic, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, was shut down this year due to safety fears.
The NHS stopped the routine prescription of puberty blocker treatments to under 18s in March 2024, following the Cass Review into gender identity services. The review found that children were put at risk with prescriptions for puberty-suppressing hormones, which can permanently change their development and that there was also insufficient evidence to show they were safe.
The legislation will be updated to make the order indefinite and will be reviewed in 2027.
