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A decision released by NHS England prevents puberty-blocking drugs from being prescribed to minors. The decision is likely to have momentous significance for other parts of the world, including Australia.

NHS England has issued a decision preventing the supply of puberty-blocking drugs for minors. Women’s Forum Australia labelled the result, issued on 12 March, as “momentous”. The policy comes into immediate effect.

The statement said it “has carefully considered the evidence review conducted by NICE and further published evidence available to date.”

As a result, “We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty-suppressing hormones to make the treatment routinely available at this time.”

Reactions to the Decision

Sex Matters, a human-rights organisation advocating for the rights of women, praised NHS England. Sex Matters executive director Maya Forstater stated,

“This a momentous development in the course correction of NHS England’s approach to treating childhood gender distress.”

“The significance of NHS England’s statement that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty blockers cannot be overstated, given the success that activist lobby groups have had in portraying them as a harmless and reversible treatment.”

Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss also welcomed the news. But she went further, calling for support for her bill that would see puberty blockers banned under the law.

I welcome NHS England’s decision to end the routine prescription of puberty blockers to children for gender dysphoria.

I urge the Government to back my Bill on Friday which will reinforce this in law and also prevent these drugs being supplied privately.👇 https://t.co/vV8Y5snQaI

— Liz Truss (@trussliz) March 12, 2024

Currently, puberty blockers will still be available for those presently on treatment. The NHS is also planning to commence a trial on puberty blockers in children. Truss’ bill would mean the trial is unlawful.

Transgender detransitioner, Christian and author Oli London described the NHS decision as a “landmark ruling for the rest of the world”.

He welcomed the ruling, saying, “The data on puberty blockers suggests that it causes significant health concerns for children… There are issues with bone density and bone development.”

“We know kids can’t consent to these things, just like a kid can’t get a tattoo or smoke a cigarette. This is a common-sense approach, so I believe this will set the precedence for the rest of the world.”

The Fall of NHS’s Tavistock Centre

The NHS decision has come about due to outcry against the now disgraced NHS-run Tavistock Centre. The centre is the provider of the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) for children. It is set to close at the end of this month. Instead, the NHS will establish regional centres that focus on more holistic approaches to care.

Hannah Barnes, an award-winning journalist and former staffer at the BBC, released her findings on GIDS in her February 2023 book Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children. Barnes spent more than 100 hours interviewing GIDS clinicians, former patients and other relevant experts in her foundational research.

The highly acclaimed book makes for harrowing reading.

One review article in The Guardian described the book as “far more disturbing than anything I’ve read before”.

Why?

Because “we watch as a child’s background, however disordered, and her mental health, however fragile, are ignored by teams now interested only in gender.”

Clinicians pushed gender transition regardless of cost to the child, ignoring other significant mental history and family background.

The statistics on children at GIDS revealed by Barnes were “horrifying”. The author documented that “at GIDS, more than a third of referrals presented with autistic traits.”

“Clinicians also saw high numbers of children who had been sexually abused.”

The “treatment caused, among other things, severe depression, sexual dysfunction, osteoporosis and stunted growth, and whose many other problems were simply ignored.”

The review concludes by saying, “This is a medical scandal, the full consequences of which may only be understood in many years’ time.”

To ignore the author’s conclusion “requires a callousness that would be far beyond my imagination”.

Implications for Australia

In Australia, parliaments are currently voting against any inquiry into ‘gender-affirming’ care. Motions to hold inquires have been voted down at the federal level and also in the states of Victoria and South Australia.

However, as reported by Women’s Forum Australia, this “momentous shift in the UK… cannot be ignored by health professionals… in Australia.”

Currently, Australian “politicians [are]… turning a blind eye to the harm being caused to children by puberty blockers and other forms of ‘gender-affirming care’.

They are, tragically, currently moving in the other direction. States such as NSW and Tasmania are heading towards banning ‘conversion therapy’. The effect of which enforces gender transition practices and outlaws attempts to ‘suppress’ a person’s ‘gender identity’.

But to use the idiom derived from the book of Daniel, the NHS decision means the writing is now on the wall for the current callous-hearted political class.

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Photo by Pavel Danilyuk.