The National Health Service (NHS) has permanently banned minors from being prescribed puberty blockers in England, citing a lack of evidence that the medical intervention is safe.
The decision was made following an NHS-designated evidence review within the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This process evaluated the evidence surrounding drugs commonly known as puberty blockers, which prevent adolescents from properly developing reproductive hormones like estrogen in girls and testosterone in boys.
After having “carefully considered” the NICE review, the NHS reportedly “concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of PSH [puberty suppressing hormones] to make the treatment routinely available at this time.”
Data from the NHS Gender Identity Development Service shows a massive spike in the amount of kids being referred to the national health organization, to which officials clued into the issue and ordered the evidence review.
In 2012, only 250 children were referred to the gender clinic, a number that rose at alarming rates over the course of a decade, landing at over 5,000 referrals in 2022. Currently, there are less than 100 minors in England who are actively using puberty blockers under the watch of Leeds and University College London Hospital endocrinologists.
This minority will be permitted to have ongoing access to the drugs via the NHS, but no more children are allowed to be given prescriptions for puberty blockers in the future.
UK’s Health Minister, Maria Caulfield, reacted to the news with agreement. In remarks made after the NHS announcement, she emphasized the need to ensure “children’s safety and wellbeing,” noting that her office “welcome[s] this landmark decision.”
She added that the decision will help provide treatment to gender confused minors that is “based on evidence” and “expert clinical opinion,” as well as ensuring that it will fit the “best interests” of the young patients.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) also commented on the decision, writing on social media that she hopes Congress will be “bold enough” to further her efforts to ban puberty blockers and surgical intervention for kids with gender dysphoria in the United States. Greene has been promoting a bill titled the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would establish a nationwide ban on these practices.
I wish Congress was bold enough to move forward with my Protect Children’s Innocence Act to ban puberty blockers and end child genital mutilation surgeries.
Protecting our kids from these life altering procedures shouldn’t be partisan!https://t.co/bMDK25Gfs6
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 12, 2024
Previously, the NHS announced in June 2023 its plans to ban puberty blockers for kids due to the apparent connection between gender confusion and other issues including pre-existing mental health problems, family struggles and social challenges.
