NHS England has announced multiple changes to its gender services for kids, including a new service for detransitioners, and the launch of a new clinical trial for puberty-blocking drugs.
The moves come as part of a plan published by the NHS that it hopes will “transform” its services and practices for gender-confused young people to make them “safer”, which also involves the rolling out of six new gender clinics for children around the country.
Dr Hilary Cass had made the recommendation for new care provisions for detransitioners and a new clinical trial in her landmark review of gender services, and the NHS has accepted her recommendations for children in full.
‘Unethical’
The moves have prompted a mixed response, with news that some children will now be put on puberty blockers as part of a trial starting next year facing particular criticism.
NHS England said the trial will examine the “potential benefits and harms of puberty suppressing hormones for children and young people”. However, although Dr Cass backed further trials, she admitted in her review that a previous trial “did not demonstrate benefit” and showed “a lack of any positive measurable outcomes”.
Lucy Marsh of the Family Education Trust said she was concerned about the new trial, which she called “unethical” and “dangerous”.
She added: “We do not need more gender clinics, instead the NHS should be looking at the root causes of gender dysphoria including mental health issues, autism, sexual abuse and issues within the family. It is not ‘kind’ to lead children down a pathway that leads to irreversible harm and destroys families.”
Mental health therapy
Former psychotherapy student James Esses, who was ousted from his course after warning against “irreversible” procedures for gender-confused children, also criticised the trial.
He said: “Mental health therapy is exactly how we should treat this, we should treat this exactly how we treat other mental health issues.”
“If the NHS does end up trialling puberty blockers,” he added, “we already know the harm they cause because of the Cass Review and the ban implemented on puberty blockers by the previous government – and children have been irreversibly damaged, so I’m concerned about that.”
‘Permanent damage’
Naomi Cunningham of women’s rights group Sex Matters said: “The commitment to collecting comprehensive and standardised data marks a radical improvement on the opaque and substandard practices of the past.
“We understand why the NHS and Dr Hilary Cass believe that clinical trials of puberty blockers are necessary, but we would urge them to reconsider.
“Such trials are ethically unjustifiable, given the known risks of permanent damage to fertility, sexual functioning and general health.
“While well-meaning, these trials pose the very real risk of the NHS sacrificing the otherwise good health of vulnerable children and causing them grave physical harm in the name of research.”
Detransitioners
However, the announcement that NHS England is launching the first ever service for people who no longer identify as transgender and want help to return to living as their birth sex has been welcomed.
The NHS said: “There is no defined clinical pathway in the NHS for individuals who are considering detransition. NHS England will establish a programme of work to explore the issues around a detransition pathway by October 2024.”
NHS officials are now set to define what such a plan of treatment might look like, but have accepted Dr Cass’s advice that the patients “may not wish to re-engage with the services they were previously under”, and so should receive care from different physicians.
Given the lack of data around those who choose to return to living as their birth sex, the NHS will also conduct research into the rate at which patients detransition, as well as their reasons for doing so.
‘Mental and physical scars’
The Christian Institute’s Director Ciarán Kelly said: “A new service to help people detransition is welcome. These are the people forgotten in the push to promote ‘trans-affirming’ procedures but they bear the mental, and in many cases physical, scars of the outworking of this destructive gender ideology.
“Having recognised the need to accept the reality of their biological sex, many then report being relentlessly bullied by some in the LGBT community. Such vulnerable people need proper support to return to living as God intended.
“However, the news that a clinical trial of puberty blockers is to go ahead next year is deeply concerning. Many side-effects of the drugs are already known, including long term effects on fertility, bone density, growth and possibly even brain development. The NHS should not knowingly put children’s health at risk.”
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