Senior clinicians have advised the Scottish Government to formally ban puberty-blocking drugs for gender-confused children.
The multidisciplinary clinical team, which includes Deputy Chief Medical Officer Graham Ellis and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Alison Strath, agreed that many of Dr Hilary Cass’s recommendations for children’s gender services in England should also be adopted in Scotland.
NHS Scotland’s Sandyford clinic in Glasgow no longer prescribes puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to newly referred children, but existing patients can still receive the experimental drugs.
Lack of evidence
The clinicians found that in light of “inadequate evidence for the use of puberty-suppressing hormones” and “significant” concern over long-term risks, continuing to prescribe the drugs “could lead to harm and regret”.
However, the team did back a clinical trial of the drugs, and further UK-wide research into the use of trans drugs on under-18s.
The clinicians highlighted that each child struggling with gender confusion should have a “multidimensional assessment of their needs”, in order that other concerns such as mental conditions or trauma are not overlooked.
Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray said the Government would set out its reply after the Scottish Parliament’s summer recess.
‘Irreversible’
According to newly revealed documents, a Sandyford whistleblower claimed that doctors were worried it would be deemed “transphobic” to question children who identified as the opposite sex.
Although NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde concluded that the clinic did not take “an overly affirmative stance” when concerns were raised in 2021, it did admit that some of the assessments were not as “robust” as they would have been under the new process.
The whistleblower reported that young people were being “directed to an irreversible treatment pathway impacting negatively on their physical and emotional wellbeing” without sufficient assessment.
One mental health professional told The Times: “There is no exploratory work around what is going on for this person. They accept whatever gender you say you are, that is what you are.”
Restrictions
Under emergency regulations in force until 3 September, young people in Britain are no longer able to obtain puberty blockers via private prescriptions from the UK or Europe.
NHS England, Scotland and Wales have stopped routinely prescribing the experimental drugs for new child patients, while Northern Ireland did so in 2020.
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