Sinn Fein MLA: ‘Puberty blockers for teens is normal healthcare’

Young teens confused about their gender should be given access to trans drugs, a Sinn Fein MLA has said.

Speaking at an LGBT festival in Belfast, Mid Ulster MLA Emma Sheerin suggested that prescribing puberty blockers to teenagers was a matter of “normal healthcare”.

In June, NHS England announced its intention not to ‘routinely commission’ puberty-blocking drugs for under-18s suffering from gender dysphoria.

Legislation

During a panel discussion at Belfast Pride, politicians were asked their parties views on puberty-blocking drugs for “young trans teens” in Northern Ireland.

Sheerin said she wished to see legislation that would allow under-18s to be prescribed the experimental drugs. Sinn Fein later issued a statement seeming to back Sheerin’s view saying: “Sinn Fein supports an update to gender recognition laws in the North to be harmonised with the south.”

UUP leader Doug Beattie offered no clear answer, and Alliance MLA Eoin Tennyson said it was an issue for individuals, families and medics to resolve. The DUP did not attend the event.

A TUV spokesman told The News Letter that following last year’s “highly critical report” of the Tavistock Clinic, “one would have hoped that there would be greater caution around giving life-altering drugs to children, but it would seem not”.

Risks

NHS England has launched an investigation into puberty blockers after Dr Hilary Cass highlighted significant “uncertainties” surrounding the use of the experimental drugs with youngsters suffering from gender dysphoria.

A health service spokesman said: “The NHS is now engaging on the proposal that puberty blockers will not be made routinely available outside of research.”

Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, in partnership with mental health services, the “primary intervention” for gender-confused children and young people under the new service is to be through “psychological” support.

In a recent letter to the Wall Street Journal, 21 clinicians and researchers from nine countries warned that the risks associated with minors taking puberty blockers “are significant and include sterility, lifelong dependence on medication and the anguish of regret”.