NHS Pauses New Prescriptions Of Puberty Blockers

England’s health care system,  the National Health Service, has announced that it was putting on hold new prescriptions of puberty blockers for young trans and gender-diverse children. 

“Puberty suppressing hormones (PSH) are not available as a routine commissioning treatment option for treatment of children and young people who have gender incongruence/gender dysphoria,” NHS England said in a policy document published on Tuesday.

NHS England said it had “carefully considered the evidence review conducted by NICE (2020) and has identified and reviewed any further published evidence available to date.”

“We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty-suppressing hormones to make the treatment routinely available at this time,” the health agency said. 

Trans People Deserve Access To Healthcare

LGBTQI organisations have expressed concern at the agency’s policy to pause new prescriptions for puberty blockers. 

“All trans young people deserve access to high quality, timely healthcare,” Stonewall UK said in a statement. “For some, an important part of this care comes in the form of puberty blockers, a reversible treatment that delays the onset of puberty, prescribed by expert endocrinologists, giving the young person extra time to evaluate their next steps.” 

“Ultimately what matters is that trans and gender diverse young people have the best possible care, and we welcome any research that will lead to that outcome. However, we are concerned that NHS England will be putting new prescriptions on hold until a research protocol is up and running, which NHS England have confirmed should be by the end of 2024,” said the organisation. 

According to Stonewall, the policy will not affect young people who are already on puberty blockers. “The group who it will affect are young people who are currently in the system, but who haven’t been referred to the endocrine pathway,” said Stonewall UK. 

“The current waiting list is around 8,000 young people, most of whom have been waiting over 5 years for any kind of support. We find it concerning that this new policy has come into effect before the research protocol has been set up, and we also note the potential it creates for further misunderstanding around puberty blockers themselves, which are not a new treatment devised for trans people and are already prescribed for a significantly larger number of young people experiencing precocious puberty.”

‘Deeply Disappointing’

Mermaids, the UK charity that supports trans, non-binary and gender-diverse young people and their families, called the NHS decision “deeply disappointing”. 

“Those currently prescribed puberty blockers won’t see any changes to their treatment, and this is a pause on prescribing – not a ban. It’s also important to note that puberty blockers can be just one possible part of a young person’s gender journey. However, this news still comes as a blow and will deeply affect our communities,” Mermaids said in a statement. 

“Everyone deserves access to healthcare, and to live happy and healthy lives. Trans youth are no exception,” the organisation added.