Health Secretary rejects calls to halt puberty blocker trial

Wes Streeting has rejected calls to stop a trial of puberty blocking medication for children who are questioning their gender.

Last year, the prescription of puberty blockers was banned for those under 18 following the Cass Review which found that there was “remarkably weak” evidence to support the use of such drugs.

The clinical trial for puberty blockers was recommended by The Cass Review and will begin in January for 226 children aged between 10 and 16. The Health Secretary described the decision to implement the trial as the “right thing to do” despite these drugs being used on young people making him “uncomfortable”.

Replying to a question from the Conservative Shadow Health Minister, Dr Caroline Johnson, Streeting said: “The reason why, whatever my discomfort in this extremely sensitive area, I have made this decision is because I am following clinical advice and because, as health secretary, it is my responsibility to follow expert advice.”

“Am I uncomfortable about puberty-suppressing hormones for this group of young people, for these particular conditions? Yes, I am, because of risks.” He then added that he had also been “uncomfortable” with a permanent ban, “because I had to look children and young people in the eye, and their parents, who told me in no uncertain terms that that decision was harmful to them”.

Dr Caroline Johnson, who was a consultant paediatrician who had looked after children with gender dysphoria, asked why the government was funding experiments on “physically healthy children” in this trial. She said about ‘Streeting’s Trial’ as she called it: “The vast majority of the children in this trial are being unnecessarily experimented on with risky medications under his leadership.” The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has also called for the trial to be cancelled.

The research team for the clinical trial has said that both the physical and mental health of the participants will be monitored closely, as well as the children’s bone density and brain development, and that the trial has been designed “to meet rigorous scientific and ethics standards”. Critics of the trial have cited concerns about the impact of such drugs on the development of the brain in children, as well as impact on fertility and bone density. They have also raised questions about the ability of young children to consent to interventions of this kind.

Keira Bell, who was given puberty blockers by the Tavistock Clinic as a teenager and now campaigns against their use, has said that her experience has left her “extremely angry”.

She said: “I didn't know that I was essentially trapping my own mind from developing, because puberty doesn't happen in a vacuum - it's your whole body, it's your brain sending signals to your body. So I didn't understand any of that”. “There are children who have already been down this pathway – I'm one of them. Why aren't we doing follow-ups with people like me?” she went on to say, “Children are essentially going to be harmed from this trial.”