'Unacceptable safety risk': Puberty blockers permanently banned in UK



The United Kingdom announced this week that it is pulling the pin on an experiment that may have had adverse effects on children's bone density, cognitive performance, emotional stability, and future fertility.

National Health Service England announced in March that minors would no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at so-called gender-identity clinics, stating, "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."

Months later, then-British Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Victoria Atkin used emergency powers "to ban puberty blockers for new treatments of gender dysphoria from private clinics and for all purposes from overseas prescribers into Great Britain." The ban on private sales goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

On Wednesday, the British Department of Health and Social Care announced that existing emergency measures banning the sale and supply of puberty blockers "will be made indefinite, following official advice from medical experts," in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

"The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has provided independent expert advice that there is currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children. It recommends indefinite restrictions while work is done to ensure the safety of children and young people," the department said in a release.

'Puberty blockers are powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks.'

Blaze News previously reported that the drugs in question, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists, also known as GnRHa, have long been used to chemically castrate sex offenders.

According to the medical advocacy group Do No Harm's Stop the Harm database, between 2019 and 2023, at least 13,994 American minors underwent sex-change treatments and over 8,500 received hormones and puberty blockers. The Free Press noted in August that the leading provider of sex-change hormones for young adults in the United States is Planned Parenthood.

Puberty blockers, rebranded for kids with gender confusion, have been characterized as safe and effective by LGBT activists and pharmaceutical reps. This narrative did not, however, survive the release of the Cass Review earlier this year, at least on the other side of the Atlantic.

Dr. Hilary Cass, an acclaimed British medical doctor who previously served as president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, was commissioned by NHS England to investigate the U.K. sex-change regime and its youth-facing services. The penetrating investigation revealed that where so-called gender science is concerned, "there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions, or for children and their families to make informed choices."

Extra to pointing out that so-called gender-science is largely based on research of "poor quality," demonstrating "poor study design, inadequate follow-up periods and a lack of objectivity in reporting of results," the Cass Review demolished the case for using puberty blockers, stressing the uses "are unproven and benefits/harms are unknown."

The review found not only that puberty blockers compromise bone density but have no apparent impact on so-called gender dysphoria.

Dr. Cass said of the indefinite ban, "I support the government's decision to continue restrictions on the dispensing of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria outside the NHS where these essential safeguards are not being provided."

"Puberty blockers are powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks, and that is why I recommended that they should only be prescribed following a multi-disciplinary assessment and within a research protocol," added Dr. Cass.

'Children's healthcare must always be evidence-led.'

James Palmer, the NHS medical director for specialized services, stated, "Evidence reviews by NICE and NHS England, supported by Dr Cass, clearly showed there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty suppressing hormones for the treatment of gender dysphoria or incongruence, which is why the NHS decided that they would no longer be routinely offered to children and young people."

Rather than loading confused kids up with transmogrifying drugs and removing body parts, the British health system is now focused on offering holistic support and working with patients on mental health.

Wes Streeting, the current health and social care secretary, stated, "Children's healthcare must always be evidence-led. The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people."

"Dr. Cass' review also raised safety concerns around the lack of evidence for these medical treatments," continued Streeting. "We need to act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people, and follow the expert advice."

While Britain has grown wise to the potential risks of puberty blockers, the money and ideology-driven regime stateside has not similarly been dealt a national blow.

Dr. Cass blasted certain American medical associations in a May New York Times interview, suggesting that the American Academy of Pediatrics, for instance — which has repeatedly lashed out against Republican-led states for protecting children from child sex-change mutilations — has held "on to a position that is now demonstrated to be out of date by multiple systematic reviews."

Cass suggested it "wouldn't be too much of a problem if people were saying, 'This is clinical consensus and we're not sure.' But what some organizations are doing is doubling down on saying the evidence is good. I think that's where you're misleading the public."

Of the 28 states where Republicans control the legislature, 24 red states have successfully passed bans to protect children from puberty blockers, hormone therapies, or sex-change mutilations, reported the New York Times. Robert Hinkle, a Clinton-nominated federal judge, suggested that such Republicans had actually acted on "old-fashioned discriminatory animus."

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week about a puberty blocker ban in Tennessee. Should the high court uphold the ban when issuing its decision in United States v. Skrmetti sometime next year, similar bans will be reinforced across the country.

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Top British pediatrician: US medical establishment is 'misleading' the public about the science behind child sex changes



The British medical establishment was long captive to gender ideology. It is now coming to terms with the error of its ways, having realized that the supposed "right side of history" where the trans-activist flag waves proudly is actually the province of pseudoscience, misery, and mutilation.

Dr. Hilary Cass, a British medical doctor who previously served as president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, hammered the final nail into the coffin for the "gender-affirming care" narrative in April.

Cass, a highly esteemed recipient of the Order of the British Empire, was appointed by the National Health Service in England in 2020 to lead an independent investigation into Britain's sex-change regime and its youth facing services. Her 388-page final report — released shortly after England effectively banned the prescription of puberty blockers and shuttered the infamous Tavistock child gender-identity clinic — made abundantly clear that the evidence in support of "gender-affirming care" was "weak" at best.

In addition to highlighting unreliable science and the fallout of sex-change interventions, Cass noted that sex-change procedures did not impact suicide risk or deliver on other promised results and that mutilated children may likely have otherwise outgrown their confusion.

These conclusions sent various radicals into fits of rage. Cass has since become a popular target, even for some leftist lawmakers.

Cass recently expressed amazement that whereas Britain is now pumping the brakes on its mutilatory practices — joining the ranks of other Western nations like Finland and Norway — the American medical establishment is ostensibly speeding along with reckless abandon.

'Do what you've been trained to do.'

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Cass was confronted with recent reactions stateside to her findings.

The Endocrine Society reportedly said, "We stand firm in our support of gender-affirming care," suggesting that it is "needed and often lifesaving."

While the American Academy of Pediatrics reportedly declined to comment on the specifics of Cass' landmark report, its woke president, Ben Hoffman, said, "Politicians have inserted themselves into the exam room, which is dangerous for both physicians and for families."

The AAP, which has repeatedlylashed out against red states for protecting children from child sex-change mutilations, reiterated that its guidance is "grounded in evidence and science."

'What some organizations are doing is doubling down on saying the evidence is good. And I think that’s where you’re misleading the public.'

The AAP's guidance incorporates recommendations from the scandal-plagued World Professional Association of Transgender Health, which Environmental Progress and nationally syndicated radio host and cofounder of Blaze Media Glenn Beck have in recent months exposed as a pseudoscientific activist organization whose members have indicated as much behind closed doors.

— (@)

Blaze News previously reported that WPATH members are quoted in Environmental Progress researcher Mia Hughes' bombshell report discussing: giving irreversible medical treatments to mentally compromised patients incapable of providing consent; the inability of parents and adolescents to comprehend the long-term fallout of so-called gender affirmation; putting a gloss on post-operation regrets; and the ruinous side effects of sex-change mutilations.

The AAP appears to still regard WPATH as a credible organization.

Cass took issue with the American organizations' apparent aversion to the facts about "gender-affirming care."

"When I was president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, we did some great work with the A.A.P.," Cass told the Times. "They are an organization that I have enormous respect for. But I respectfully disagree with them on holding on to a position that is now demonstrated to be out of date by multiple systematic reviews."

Cass suggested it "wouldn't be too much of a problem if people were saying 'This is clinical consensus and we're not sure.' But what some organizations are doing is doubling down on saying the evidence is good. I think that's where you're misleading the public."

"You need to be honest about the strength of the evidence and say what you're going to do to improve it," continued Cass. "I suspect that the A.A.P., which is an organization that does massive good for children worldwide, and I see as a fairly left-leaning organization, is fearful of making any moves that might jeopardize trans health care right now."

Hoffman, prickled by Cass' suggestion, later stated that "any suggestion the American Academy of Pediatrics is misleading families is false."

'What really worries me is that people just think: This is somebody who is trans, and the medical pathway is the right thing for them.'

The esteemed British pediatrician suggested that perhaps if the AAP was not subject to such intense political pressure, "They would be able to be more nuanced, to say that multiple truths exist in this space — that there are children who are going to need medical treatment, and that there are other children who are going to resolve their distress in different ways."

When pressed on what doctors should do moving forward, Cass minced no words: "Do what you've been trained to do."

"So that means that you approach any one of these young people as you would any other adolescent, taking a proper history, doing a proper assessment and maintaining a curiosity about what’s driving their distress," said Cass. "It may be about diagnosing autism, it may be about treating depression, it might be about treating an eating disorder."

"What really worries me is that people just think: This is somebody who is trans, and the medical pathway is the right thing for them," added Cass.

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Radicals are targeting the esteemed doctor whose UK-commissioned report blew up the transgender narrative



Dr. Hilary Cass is an award-winning British medical doctor who previously served as president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health. Esteemed in her field, politically innocuous, and a recipient of the Order of the British Empire, National Health Services England evidently figured Cass was the ideal candidate to lead an independent investigation into the U.K.'s sex-change regime and its youth-facing services.

Cass obliged them and started work on the review in 2020. Her landmark report — the product of roughly four years of penetrating investigation and analysis — came out earlier this month, transitioning public opinion and effectively putting a nail in the coffin of LGBT activists' narrative about so-called gender-affirming care.

The 388-page report not only indicated that the sex-change regime is built on weak and unreliable science but that if left unchecked, it has the potential to continue irreversibly damage minors, many of whom are, to begin with, likely incapable of properly consenting to sex-change medical interventions.

For daring to present the facts as they are contra what some may have hoped them to be, Cass has become a popular target for threats and smears by desperate gender ideologues and other leftist radicals.

The 66-year-old pediatrician recently told the Times (U.K.) that the most recent wave of backlash "started the day before the report came out when an influencer put up a picture of a list of papers that were apparently rejected for not being randomised control trials."

Among the fact-averse activists who seized upon the suggestion that the Cass report had failed to factor in various transgender narrative-affirming studies was Labor parliamentarian Dawn Butler. Butler told her fellow lawmakers in the House of Commons, "There are around 100 studies that have not been included in this Cass report and we need to know why."

Cass called Butler's assertion "completely wrong" and said it was "unforgivable" to undermine the report with such blatant falsehoods. The pediatrician told the Times that contrary to Butler's suggestion, researchers had gone through all of the activist-preferred studies, but pulled results from only 60 as the remainder were of inferior quality.

Butler eventually had to eat crow, apologizing in the British parliament, indicating she made the mistake of quoting a Stonewall briefing.

Last week I inadvertently misled the House by quoting a figure from a Stonewall briefing.\n\nI'm grateful for conversation with Dr Cass and am happy to correct the record because that's what politicians should do.\n\nI have more to say watch this space !
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Stonewall, of the U.K.'s most influential LGBT activist groups, has a knack for circulating false claims, having responded last month to NHS England's decision to end the prescription puberty blockers for children with the suggestion that luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists, long used to chemically castrate sex offenders and known to deplete bone density, were "reversible."

Stonewall has also parroted the claim that "children as young as 2 recognise their trans identity."

"If you deliberately try to undermine a report that has looked at the evidence of children's healthcare, then that's unforgivable. You are putting children at risk by doing that," added Cass.

Cass has apparently also been flooded with abusive emails, such that security services have reportedly had to intervene with advice.

"There are some pretty vile emails coming in at the moment. Most of which my team is protecting me from, so I'm not getting to see them," she told the Times. Some of them contained "words I wouldn't put in a newspaper."

"What dismays me is just how childish the debate can become," continued the pediatrician. "If I don't agree with somebody then I'm called transphobic or a Terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist]."

Apparently, the security services Cass has been dealing with figure some radicals may seek to do more than threaten the doctor online.

"I'm not going on public transport at the moment," she told the Times, "following security advice, which is inconvenient."

Cass drew the ire of radicals for noting in her report that:

  • the "systematic review showed no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence";
  • puberty blockers "exert their intended effect in suppressing puberty," but compromise bone density and have no apparent impact on "gender dysphoria or body satisfaction";
  • there is a dearth of consistent evidence about the "effect of puberty suppression on psychological or psychosocial wellbeing, cognitive development, cardio-metabolic risk or fertility";
  • there is a lack of high-quality research assessing the outcomes of hormone interventions in adolescents confused about their sex;
  • there is no evidence to support the popular claim amongst gender ideologues that cross-sex hormones reduce the elevated risk of deaths amongst those suffering from gender dysphoria;
  • clinicians are incapable of determining with certainty which prospective child victims might simply grow out of their confusion;
  • for "most young people, a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage their gender-related distress"; and
  • the so-called science regarding "gender-affirming care" is "an area of remarkably weak evidence" built on "shaky foundations."

Whereas Stonewall and leftists find the facts hard to digest, others have willingly admitted fault.

A group of 16 senior clinical psychologists penned a letter in the Guardian on April 21, noting, "Whether intentionally or not, and many were doing their best in an impossible situation, it was clinical psychologists who promoted an ideology that was almost impossible to challenge; who, as the Cass report found, largely failed to carry out proper assessments of troubled young people, and thus put many on an 'irreversible medical pathway' that in most cases was inappropriate; and who failed in their most basic duty to keep proper records."

They concluded, "We are ashamed of the role psychology has played [in gender-affirming care]."

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