Children ‘can’t just decide to be on puberty blocker trial’, says Wes Streeting

A trial into puberty blockers for trans young people will go ahead despite opposition, the health secretary has said.

Wes Streeting banned the drug as a form of gender-affirming healthcare in England and Wales last year, citing safety risk concerns.

Now a £10million trial will assess the benefits and risks of the medication for trans youngsters.

Amid criticism from the Conservative Party, Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today this morning that the trial will be going ahead.

He said: ‘I’ve tried to do my best to take politics out of this entirely and to resist political pressure, wherever it is coming from, to do anything other than to listen to our country’s best scientists, top paediatricians and to do the right thing when it comes to the safety and the well-being of children’s medicine generally.’

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wrote to Streeting last month, urging that the trial involving 226 young people be stopped.

In response, Streeting said that the trial is following recommendations from the Cass Review, a review into the UK’s youth gender services.

Referring to the top paediatrician who led the review, Streeting said: ‘It was Hilary Cass who sounded the alarm about the prescription of puberty blockers for this patient group without adequate evidence.’

The MP for Ilford North stressed that ethical and regulatory approval was granted for the trial.

Puberty blockers, sometimes called hormone suppressants, pause the physical changes of puberty by stopping estrogen or testosterone.

The medication has long been a treatment for gender dysphoria, the distress people feel when their gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

The new clinical trial, called Pathway, will see King’s College London researchers analyse the effects of puberty blockers, prescribed with consent from parents or guardians, over two years.

They will all have reached puberty, be younger than 16 and meet strict criteria.

One group of teens will start puberty blockers right away, while the other will wait 12 months.

The findings, which will be published in about four years, will help the NHS support and treat trans young people. As of now, the trial is the only way to access the medicine on the NHS.

Streeting said: ‘It will not be the case that a child, young person, can say, “I want to be on this trial” and then they’re on it.’

‘They have to go through rigorous assessment in terms of their physical health and their mental health.’

He added: ‘I am satisfied that this trial has been built with ethics and safety at the heart of it. I am concerned about the safety and well-being of children and young people affected by gender dysphoria.’

Trans rights campaigners and families of trans young people have widely criticised the puberty blocker ban.

Felix Fern, a trans rights campaigner, told Metro: ‘The entire ordeal is a farce.’

‘We’ve already had decades of evidence that puberty blockers are safe for minors, which is being conveniently ignored,’ Fern said.

Studies have shown that trans youngsters on puberty blockers can increase their mental health, while the ban is causing ‘extensive’ psychological harm on British trans young people.

Fern also pointed out how the ban does not apply to being used as a treatment for precocious puberty, where puberty occurs at an early age.

‘No one is demanding that their care be removed,’ Fern added.

‘It’s incredibly telling that people only care about the impact of a medication and its effects on children and their livelihoods when those children belong to a marginalised group that is being routinely demonised.’ 

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