Scot Govt must ‘stop refusing’ to protect young people from trans drugs

The Scottish Government has been urged to take note of the revelations that giving trans drugs to young people is “based on remarkably weak evidence”.

When NHS England stopped routinely prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to children because of insufficient evidence to support their safe or effective use, the Scottish Government merely said that it would continue to discuss what “future engagement is appropriate”.

And now following the long-awaited Cass Review’s final report on NHS England’s gender identity services for children and young people, MSPs have been advised to review the use of cross-sex hormones and restrict access to puberty blockers.

‘Repeated calls’

In response, a Scottish Government spokesperson stated that the report only applies to England and the Government will consider its findings in the context of how services can “be best delivered here in Scotland”.

But former Tavistock staff governor Dr David Bell questioned how anyone could claim the report doesn’t apply to Scottish children, saying: “One of the things Cass points out is that the ordinary canons of clinical judgment have been overtaken by gender ideology and this is continuing in Scotland.

“Children are still being damaged in plain sight because of ideological capture instead of proper clinical evidence-based work”.

Ideology

The Scottish Conservatives’ deputy leader, Meghan Gallacher MSP, emphasised: “Despite repeated calls from medical experts, campaigners and the Scottish Conservatives, the SNP Government refused to undertake a review of gender clinics here in Scotland.”

“If the SNP won’t heed the recommendations made by the Cass Review, then they must urgently undertake their own evaluation, so that we can protect the wellbeing of young people, especially children, accessing these services, starting with pausing the use of puberty blockers.”

The Scotsman newspaper also said the Government “simply cannot ignore this report,” due to the risk that “ideologically driven treatments may be doing more harm than good to young people who rely on adults to look after them. This is about medicine, not politics.”

And in a letter to Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Sir Gregor Smith, SNP MP Joanna Cherry and former Scottish Greens leader Robin Harper warned that giving puberty blockers to young people pushes them on “a medicalised pathway which has lifelong implications”.

NHS England

In England, the NHS has agreed to review the transgender procedures it provides for both children and adults in view of the Cass Review’s final report.

In a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph, NHS England’s National Director for Specialised Commissioning, John Stewart, said it will launch an evidence review and public consultation on cross-sex hormones for young people, after it recently updated its policy to continue 16-year-olds’ access to the drugs.

Dr Hilary Cass, who led the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people, concluded that giving trans drugs to children is “based on remarkably weak evidence”. She urged the NHS to review its use of cross-sex hormones and ensure that gender-confused children receive a holistic assessment of all their needs.

But the report left open the possibility of drugs for some “for whom medical intervention is clinically indicated”.