The number of children being given puberty blockers has doubled since the NHS pledged to crack down on the treatment, The Telegraph can reveal.
At least 100 children, some as young as 12, have been given drugs to prevent puberty since July 2022, but health authorities say they will continue to do so following a tough review of children’s gender services. It was announced that administration of the drug outside of clinical trials would be discontinued.
One expert warned that children were being sent down a path of “no return”.
Sajid Javid MP, a former health secretary, said the increase “put more vulnerable children at risk of harm” and warned the NHS to be “extremely cautious”.
Dr Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, warned that the drug could permanently disrupt the maturation of adolescent brains and irreversibly rewire neural circuits. .
Her landmark review revealed that the controversial Tavistock practice had taken a “positive, non-exploratory approach” in diagnosing children with gender dysphoria without a proper diagnosis. He asked for the place to be closed.
In July 2022, NHS England agreed with all of her recommendations that hormone blockers should only be prescribed as part of clinical trials “because there is significant uncertainty in the use of hormone treatments”.
However, in the 12 months to July 2023, the number of children starting puberty blockers on the NHS rose to 83, double the average for the previous two years.
Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to Leeds General Hospital and University College London Hospital, which receive referrals from Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), revealed that between July and October this year at least a further 17 children have started taking blockers, the total rising to at least 100 since last summer.
This does not include patients who were given blockers privately or by their GP, but due to FoI exemptions for potentially identifiable small numbers, this is the most conservative estimate. means.
Tavistock referred dozens more people for evaluation by hormone specialists.
Puberty blockers prevent the surge of hormones during puberty that lead to physical and neurological development.
Dr David Bell, a consultant psychiatrist and Tavistock whistleblower, said they had caused “considerable damage”.
“It’s not that the safety of puberty blockers is ‘unknown.’ We know quite a bit. There are serious concerns about bone mineralization and long-term cognitive effects.” , it can weaken bones, impair brain development and put you at risk for long-term heart disease.
“We know that 98 per cent of children who start taking puberty blockers go on to take cross-sex hormones, and a significant proportion of them end up having surgery,” he added. “They are starting down a path that is irreversible. Letting them go down that path creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
He said the affirmative approach meant that “autism, depression, family trauma and sexual orientation” were not taken into account, which was “hugely harmful and completely contrary to Cass’s recommendations.” “There is,” he said.
Mr Javid gave additional legal powers to the Cass Review during his time as health secretary and was instrumental in the urgent review of puberty blockers until he left office, but said: “I was determined to protect it,” he said.
“This increase puts more vulnerable children at risk of harm,” he said. “Given the lasting and life-altering effects, the NHS should be extremely cautious, as the Cass Review recommends.”
Activists have criticized the NHS for “putting vulnerable children at risk”.
Stephanie Davis Ally, director of Transgender Trends, an organization that advocates for evidence-based health care, said:
“Knowing the harm described in Dr Cass’ interim report, I cannot understand how the NHS can stand by and let this continue.”
It comes as the government plans to launch guidance on gender identity for schools in the coming weeks.
The guidance has been plagued by delays and was one of four key policies that former home secretary Suella Braverman said Chancellor Rishi Sunak had “clearly and repeatedly failed to implement”.
The latest draft would make it clear that sports teams, locker rooms and restrooms must be single-sex, and require schools to notify parents if their child adopts the name, pronouns or uniform of the opposite sex.
Clinical trials only
Under the NHS plan, children would only take hormone blockers as part of clinical trials that are still being prepared, but that would only apply to children who are not already taking the drug.
In a consultation paper, the NHS estimated that 378 children were on blockers in July 2022, before this latest data was released.
A memo from one of the new providers, obtained by the Telegraph, said: “We are far from agreeing on how the investigation will be carried out.”
Last July, authorities ordered the closure of Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service and said it would be replaced by a regional hub in spring 2023, but this was postponed to the autumn and then again recently to spring 2024.
Around 8,000 people are waiting for an initial appointment and will be transferred to a new provider, with the first confirmed cases being at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. be.
As many as 2,000 teenagers aged 16 and 17 are said to be unable to access child services until they turn 18 due to delays and backlogs, and are therefore sent straight to adult clinics.
An NHS spokesperson said: “Following the recommendations of the independent Cath Review, the NHS is undertaking a consultation on proposals to discontinue the routine use of puberty suppressing hormones due to the lack of evidence regarding their use. We have started and are currently analyzing thousands of responses.” ”
