A British high court on Monday upheld Britain’s ban on puberty blockers, hormonal drugs frequently given to pubescent children who express discomfort with their biological gender.
The judge noted puberty blockers were found to have “very substantial risks and very narrow benefits” by the Cass review, the landmark reportcommissioned by England’s National Health Service (NHS).
Transgender medical interventions on children are based on “remarkably weak evidence,” and young people have been caught up in a “stormy social discourse,” Justice Beverley Lang said in her ruling.
Last summer, the NHS issued an emergency ban on puberty blockers after the Cass review recommended halting the powerful drugs due to their effects on brain development and bone health.
“Outside of a research setting, puberty-suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned for children and adolescents,” the NHS said at the time.
A group called TransActual, along with an unnamed youth, sued over the government’s decision, calling it a “cruel new element of the war on trans youth.”
With Monday’s decision, however, the ban will remain in place.
“Children’s healthcare must be evidence-led,” said Health Secretary Wes Streeting, welcoming the ruling. “We must therefore act cautiously and with care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people.”
However, Streeting added that he is setting up a clinical trial to establish the evidence on puberty blockers.
“I want trans people in our country to feel safe, accepted, and able to live with freedom and dignity,” he said.
Both puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones come with serious health risks. Puberty blockers can affect bone growth and density and cause sexual dysfunction, voice damage, and infertility, among other issues. Cross-sex hormones, which can be estrogen or testosterone can cause infertility, deadly blood clots, heart attacks, increased cancer risks of the breasts and ovaries, liver dysfunction, worsening psychological illness, and other serious conditions.
The Cass review also warned that children who are referred to gender services come with high rates of abuse and neglect, including sexual abuse and parental substance abuse.
England and several other European countries, such as Finland and Sweden, have pumped the brakes on transgender medical interventions for children.
In April, the Tavistock clinic, England’s only youth gender identity clinic, officially closed its doors after being dogged by controversy for years.
The clinic, the biggest in the world, referred thousands of children for puberty blockers. In its last years, Tavistock began to see an increasing flood of young girls with gender-related distress asking for drugs despite having other mental issues like depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and histories of abuse.
At least 25 U.S. states have passed restrictions on transgender surgeries and hormone treatments for minors.
Post a Comment