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The UK National Health Service announced on Friday: Limit use of puberty-suppressing drugs For children participating in clinical trials. The change comes as the agency’s Pediatric Gender Service is struggling to keep up with the surge in demand.
Document explaining NHS reasoning says “There is not enough evidence to support its safety or clinical efficacy as a routine treatment.”
The NHS had issued a draft of the policy change in October, but after months of public comment, Friday’s announcement formally introduced the new approach. The policy is expected to come into effect later this year.
Why It Matters: Other Countries Are Restricting Drugs
The change is part of a broader push to restrict gender-related health care for young people in several countries.
Finland began restricting access to gender-related treatments after an evidence review, and Sweden restricted the use of puberty inhibitors and hormones to clinical trials.a Norwegian health organization and the French National Academy of Medicine also calls for attention.
In the United States, more than 20 Republican-led states have passed laws banning the use of puberty inhibitors and hormones, and some states make it a felony for doctors to prescribe them. Hundreds of clinicians across the country, including those expressing concerns about which adolescents should receive gender-related treatment, condemned the banstates that such decisions should be made by patients, their families and physicians.
Background: Limited data on blocker effectiveness
Last year, the NHS said it would close the country’s only youth gender clinic after an external investigation found that the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service was failing to provide adequate care for a surge in young people seeking gender treatment. Announced. The clinic saw a surge in referrals, from 250 young people in 2011 to 5,000 in 2021.
Puberty blockers, which work by suppressing estrogen and testosterone, were first tested in the Netherlands in the 1990s in children with gender dysphoria.Dutch researchers have announced first study A 2011 study of 70 children found that adolescents reported less depression and anxiety after taking the drug.
However, a British study of Tavistock patients found that Published in 2021 Blockers have been shown to have no effect on children’s psychological test scores. The study found that 43 of the 44 participants later chose to start testosterone or estrogen treatment. His one interpretation of the data is that all were suitable candidates for hormone therapy. But the numbers have raised concerns in the NHS about whether the drug has served its intended purpose of giving adolescents time to think.
“The most difficult question is whether adolescent blockers actually give children and adolescents valuable time to consider their options, or whether they effectively ‘trap’ them into the treatment pathway,” he said. Dr. Hillary Kath, a pediatrician with Independent Review of NHS Gender Services, wrote last year.
What’s next: Next year, the UK will start testing children taking blockers
The NHS is planning a clinical trial for all children receiving pubertal blockers from the health service, with enrollment expected to begin in 2024.
The Tavistock clinic has closed, but regional centers are opening across the UK to expand gender-related services for young people. The NHS said a new system for treating minors with gender-related problems would establish standardized assessments and incorporate more mental health support.
“The primary aim is to reduce the suffering associated with gender inequality and promote the overall functioning and well-being of the individual,” said the NHS guidance.
