s children are in effect being put on a medical pathway to gender transition which will include, for many, progression to surgery. “The prescribing of puberty blockers introduces physical harms to a physically healthy child. There is significant evidence that puberty blockers seriously impact on bone density.”
Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at charity Sex Matters, said: “We have good reason already to think these drugs are harmful, and that the benefits are limited or non-existent.
“It’s as if the NHS was planning a trial of lobotomies long after concerns first started to be raised — in fact, even worse because the test subjects are children. It seems that £10 million of public money is going to be spent on this unethical experiment.”…
Thousands of children and young teenagers were put on puberty-blocking drugs — known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues — by the NHS Tavistock gender clinic (Gids) from 2011 onwards, in what is increasingly seen as a medical scandal. Some doctors are concerned that this new NHS trial, however well-intentioned, risks repeating some of those same mistakes.
In particular, campaigners fear that the trial’s two-year follow-up period is insufficient to tell us about the long-term outcomes of putting children on a medical pathway.
Dr Louise Irvine, a GP and co-chairwoman of the clinical advisory network on sex and gender said: “A two-year follow-up will tell us nothing at all about risks or benefits of puberty blockers. I am shocked they are putting children through the known risks of puberty blockers for no gain in knowledge and I consider it totally unethical.”
"The trial is yet to pass ethical approval". We shall see.
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