Science Children to no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England confirms

Children to no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England confirms​

The decision follows a review after a sharp rise in referrals were recorded at the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which is closing at the end of March.
Tuesday 12 March 2024 17:14, UK

Children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, NHS England has confirmed.
Puberty blockers, which pause the physical changes of puberty such as breast development or facial hair, will now only be available to children as part of clinical research trials.

The government said it welcomed the "landmark decision", adding it would help ensure care is based on evidence and is in the "best interests of the child".
It follows a public consultation on the issue and an interim policy, and comes after NHS England commissioned an independent review of gender identity services for children under 18 in 2020.
The review followed a sharp rise in referrals to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) - a specialised service for young people who experience difficulties in development of their gender identity - run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which is closing at the end of March.
In 2021-22, there were over 5,000 referrals to GIDS, compared to just under 250 a decade earlier.
The clinic has faced repeated scrutiny.


Gender identity clinic to close
Dr Hilary Cass, who led the review, published an interim report in February 2022 saying there was a need to move away from one unit and recommended regional options be available to better support children.
She also said there was a lack of long-term evidence on what happens to young people prescribed blockers - adding that GIDS had not gathered routine and consistent data meaning it was "not possible to accurately track the outcomes and pathways that children and young people take through the service".

After Tavistock closes, two new NHS services will open in early April, situated in Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, and Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.
The NHS said children attending these clinics will be supported by experts in neurodiversity, paediatrics and mental health, "resulting in a holistic approach to care".
Around 5,000 children and young people are currently on the waiting list for referral into the new clinics, as 250 patients are expected to be transferred to them when they are open.
Currently there are fewer than 100 children on puberty blockers, who will continue their treatment at Leeds and University College London Hospital.

Health Minister, Maria Caulfield, said: "We have always been clear that children's safety and wellbeing is paramount, so we welcome this landmark decision by the NHS.
"Ending the routine prescription of puberty blockers will help ensure that care is based on evidence, expert clinical opinion and is in the best interests of the child."
The consultation on the future of services received more than 4,000 responses, comprised of members of the public, 22% from patients, 21% from parents, 10% from trans adults and 5% from clinicians.
John Stewart, national director of specialised commissioning at NHS England, said the responses were "polarised" in line with the debate around puberty blockers.
Mr Stewart said: "Many people said the policy didn't go far enough in terms of still allowing potential access (to puberty blockers) through research, and others saying clearly they disagreed fundamentally and that these should be routinely available to everyone who believes they need it."
Former prime minister Liz Truss "welcomed" NHS England's decision ahead of her Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill which is up for its second reading on Friday.
The bill includes a ban on the prescription of body-altering hormones to children questioning their sex, both privately and on the NHS.
The most commonly used puberty blockers suppress the production of hormones, including testosterone and oestrogen.
NHS England hopes to have a study into their use by December - with eligibility criteria yet to be decided.

Archive: https://archive.is/Gtamn

 

[teriyakiburns]

Of course not, but increased risk of sexual abuse is one of the many problems associated with precocious and early puberty in girls. I think this also plays a huge role in why it's also correlated with an increased risk of mental illnesses and substance abuse.

You're letting your own prejudices cloud your view of this. There is absolutely no rational reason why the possibility of things that might happen should be used to justify giving kids drugs that definitely will fuck them up.

 

[SimplyScrumptious]

Does this mean they’ll be refusing prescriptions from online gp services as well? I recall they’ve been in plenty of trouble, and
In 2022, Gender GP claimed that there were around 800 under 18s in the UK on their books and Dr Helen Webberley, who started the clinic, has prescribed testosterone to children as young as 12.

I don’t know how the online pick your poison pharmacies work, does your gp/doctor not get sent the prescription notes?

 

[Otterly]

None of these kids have precocious puberty.
They’re being given a very dangerous drug off label for a condition that’s a mental illness issue not a physical issue
None have precocious puberty or stage four prostate cancer.
Off label usage is usually done where there’s a history of good use, or where there’s plenty of data or history of use to show something works. This is a case where off label use is purely ideological. NONE of the children has any physical ailment that could be treated by these drugs. There is no evidence supporting their use. There is plenty of evidence of harm.
It’s absolutely unethical to use them for gender dysphoria - this by the way is why WPATH and other bodies are pushing for the standard of care.
If a doctor prescribes off label they do so but they retain responsibility for what they prescribe. If they prescribe something with no evidence to someone who is incapable of consent then it’s lawsuit time. If they’re ’just following the accepted standard of care’ then the ability to sue successfully is far lower.

 

[Garamok]

increased risk of shit like depression, substance abuse, anxiety disorders, etc.

The same can be said about anything: being obese, being born with genetic defects,... because what you mention are not illnesses by itself but things that are caused either by outside factors or by the person actively choosing it (like substance abuse). Children with early puberty can have a great life. I'd say they have a higher chance of having a great life than they have of getting depression or anxiety. It's not the same case as with genetic defects where you know the outcome, e.g., FOP. And even people who have FOP find a way to enjoy life and embrace it.

Another thing, since you wrote "anxiety disorders". Notice how everything is a disorder now? Every "negative" human emotion can suddenly be classified as something in the holy bible of psychiatrists/psychologists/therapists (ICD) and needs to be treated with pills.

antipsychotics

those have clear effects. And psychiatrists should stop handing them out like candy, especially to teenagers. Because they certainly make things worse, alter your mind, and do not improve anything. They just turn people into zombies who can't think straight, who sleep a lot because those pills wear them down and stop them from forming clear thoughts. On top of that, they get sent to therapists who influence them into thinking that pills are the solution. Whenever the patients beg the psychiatrists for a different solution, they only say "there is nothing else, that is the only thing that helps." while they raise the dose higher and higher and add more pills on top of it. All psychiatrists and therapists and psychologists should face the fucking wall. They have too much power over people who need a community instead of pills and isolation and more pills.

Edit: I'd go so far to say that pharmacists selling herbal medicines are better people than fucking psychiatrists with their heavy drugs. Look at Quetiapin, it has so many downsides and it is the most loved and most prescribed drug by psychiatrists. They even say they love prescribing it because it allegedly helps so much. Wanna know what it does? It makes you so tired you'll sleep 14 hours each day, it wears you down so much that any kind of activity is a chore, it affects your thinking so much that you don't think about what you do. Things like studying become incredibly difficult, nothing will stay in your head, you have to read the same sentence 10 times and still can't remember what you read. It's a torture and psychiatrists swear it's helping and there is no other pill that can help.

 

[Android raptor]

The same can be said about anything: being obese, being born with genetic defects,... because what you mention are not illnesses by itself but things that are caused either by outside factors or by the person actively choosing it (like substance abuse). Children with early puberty can have a great life. I'd say they have a higher chance of having a great life than they have of getting depression or anxiety. It's not the same case as with genetic defects where you know the outcome, e.g., FOP. And even people who have FOP find a way to enjoy life and embrace it.

Another thing, since you wrote "anxiety disorders". Notice how everything is a disorder now? Every "negative" human emotion can suddenly be classified as something in the holy bible of psychiatrists/psychologists/therapists (ICD) and needs to be treated with pills.

those have clear effects. And psychiatrists should stop handing them out like candy, especially to teenagers. Because they certainly make things worse, alter your mind, and do not improve anything. They just turn people into zombies who can't think straight, who sleep a lot because those pills wear them down and stop them from forming clear thoughts. On top of that, they get sent to therapists who influence them into thinking that pills are the solution. Whenever the patients beg the psychiatrists for a different solution, they only say "there is nothing else, that is the only thing that helps." while they raise the dose higher and higher and add more pills on top of it. All psychiatrists and therapists and psychologists should face the fucking wall. They have too much power over people who need a community instead of pills and isolation and more pills.

Drugs shouldn't be handed out like candy, but they also shouldn't be withheld from people with serious conditions who genuinely need them, be it precocious puberty or schizophrenia

Children who went thru early puberty are at increased risk of mental health issues. That's pretty solidly confirmed. Doesn't mean they all will, but its not something I think should be risked if we can help it.

That said, I do think serious societal change need to happen about the fucked up way kids with early puberty (especially girls) are treated. Unfortunately that will be even more difficult than developing new drugs.

 

[derpherp2]

Drugs shouldn't be handed out like candy, but they also shouldn't be withheld from people with serious conditions who genuinely need them, be it precocious puberty or schizophrenia

equating PP to schizophrenia
Oh my fuck

 

[Targeted Individual]

I can’t believe the UK beat the mutts to figuring out the obvious

All because of J.K. Rowling and her darn wizard videogame!

 

[Garamok]

are at increased risk of mental health issues.

what isn't at an increased risk of having/causing mental health issues? Honestly, tell me.

 

[Android raptor]

what isn't at an increased risk of having/causing mental health issues? Honestly, tell me.

Kids who don't go through early puberty, for one.

 

[Anne Hyroe]

Amd it’s always bloody Leeds isn’t it? I think the devil has a regional office there

Given what we know about the link between Tavistock and (Leeds-based) Mermaids, I think that’s a given.

 

[Garamok]

Kids who don't go through early puberty, for one.

I'm sorry, raptor, you could just say <blank> is at risk for causing mental health issues. Because that is all you're saying. Having only one parent can increase the risk for mental health issues, not exercising enough increases the risk for mental health issues, not going out enough in the sun increases the risk for mental health issues,... see what I mean?

 

[Otterly]

but they also shouldn't be withheld from people with serious conditions who genuinely need them, be it precocious puberty or schizophrenia

none of these children have precocious puberty. They’re being given a drug to halt their perfectly normal and healthy puberty.
The analogy with schizophrenia would be taking a happy child and tormenting them until they have a psychotic break.
They are not physically suffering from any ailment that would require any drug at all. They’re being given a drug that causes lifelong physical ailments. This is unethical. It’s wrong in every level there is.

 

[Geoffrey of Zealand]

Children who went thru early puberty are at increased risk of mental health issues. That's pretty solidly confirmed. Doesn't mean they all will, but its not something I think should be risked if we can help it.

And the answer is osteoporosis in their 20s, chronic pain, and permanently retarded brain development? Pushed on them before they can even fully conceive of the horror of stifling the growth of the thinking organ?

Perhaps the answer to early puberty is figuring out more about why it's happening (xenoestrogens, anyone?) and addressing that rather than permanently harming children who overwhelmingly hate what's been done to them if they ever develop enough to be fully cognizant of it.

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

This just in, AR thinks small children should be physically altered to make them less attractive to predators. Where does it end? Should we iron their breasts like in some parts of Africa?

 

[Otterly]

You take your small child for a routine dental checkup. She has perfect teeth.
The dentist drills all of them and pulls a few leaving her with lifelong pain and bite issues. This is to be encouraged because sometimes an adult needs a root canal.
This is literally the argument for blockers.
It needs to be stopped and everyone involved in pushing it needs to be prosecuted

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

"Newer generation of those drugs."
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about holy shit.

Newer antipsychotics are still pretty dangerous. It should be illegal to give kids antipsychotics unless they're in a state of psychosis or so severely retarded they don't know how to do anything but beat their head against walls. Atypical antipsychotics have been linked to developing diabetes.

 

[frozen_runner]

They'll do it anyway and claim the fact they're hiding it means they're doing the moral equivalent of helping slaves escape through the Underground Railroad.

 

[Brenda Holiday]

I don't think the early puberty in that little girl was the reason that disgusting pedo shit raped her, it's because he was a disgusting pedo shit.
I love ARs tactic of bringing up something mildly related to the OP and turning it into a multi page spergfest though
Anyways, is the pendulum actually swinging back now? Is it safe to be optimistic yet?

 

[TyrasGuard]

Strange. I thought the science on this was settled?

Settled on "that's transphobic and we will not talk about it".

Anyways, is the pendulum actually swinging back now? Is it safe to be optimistic yet?

I'd say it's a big win considering it's Bongland we're spekaing about. I'm still torn on if Canada is worse or not.

 

[Otterly]

Anyways, is the pendulum actually swinging back now? Is it safe to be optimistic yet?

Not yet, no. The Tavistock gids was closed to stop people looking too closely at the Tavistock and what it does. Now two new centres will open.
You see they purposefully mention specialists in neurodiversity at these centres. Is that saying they will be acknowledging autism related issues ? Blockers only in trials is a positive because any new trials would need to pass an ethics review and so it’s not easy to just start a trial for the sake of it. It would be better to have no blockers at all ever.
The fact kids are being treated in Leeds is depressing because Leeds is a hotbed of Troon horror and general alphabet takeover. The dodgy groups of mesmac and mermaids are based out of Leeds, there is something very rotten there.
It’s a start. Long way to go.