UK: England To Stop Prescription Of Puberty Blockers For Children
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – England’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced that children suffering from gender dysphoria will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, Sky News reports. Puberty blockers will now only be available to children as part of clinical research trials.
The NHS announcement came after a public consultation and an NHS England-commissioned independent review of gender identity services for children under 18, Sky News said.
The decision to halt the prescription of puberty blockers follows a massive surge in the number of referrals of children to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS): more than 5,000 in 2021/22 compared to just under 250 ten years earlier, Sky News said.
The skyrocketing rate of referrals led to scrutiny of GIDS, which is run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and ultimately to the Service’s closure at the end of this month.
Dr Hilary Cass, who led the NHS review, attested in an interim report published in Feb. 2022 that there was a lack of long-term evidence on the impact of puberty blockers on children, Sky News reports.
Given that GIDS had not recorded consistent data, it was “not possible to accurately track the outcomes and pathways that children and young people take through the service,” Cass said.
The NHS said in a statement that, instead of being prescribed puberty blockers, children with gender dysphoria will receive support from experts in neurodiversity, pediatrics, and mental health, “resulting in a holistic approach to care,” Sky News reports.
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