Health secretary says emergency measures banning sale and supply will be made indefinite after expert advice
Puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria will be banned indefinitely across the UK except for use in clinical trials, the government has announced.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said that after receiving advice from medical experts, he would make existing emergency measures banning the sale and supply of puberty blockers indefinite.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) had published independent expert advice that there was “currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children”.
The report exists, but it has so many errors, misinterpreting its own data to bend to the conclusions its authors decided they wanted to find, lots of cherry picking, and ignoring any fact inconvenient to its conclusions.
Imagine a paper that concludes that dowsing or homeopathy is good science. It's about that accurate.
Also it was commissioned by the Tories, to be done by a woman who before even starting her research for the report, was clearly biased against trans people.
K...I started my original comment with, "While I don’t agree with it’s findings," and was responding to a comment asking for elaboration on the safety risks. I was just providing context, not stating the report was gospel-truth or anything.
Results from 5 uncontrolled, observational studies suggest that, in children and adolescents
with gender dysphoria, gender-affirming hormones are likely to improve symptoms of gender
dysphoria, and may also improve depression, anxiety, quality of life, suicidality, and
psychosocial functioning. The impact of treatment on body image is unclear. All results were
of very low certainty using modified GRADE
Safety outcomes were reported in 5 observational studies. Statistically significant increases
in some measures of bone density were seen following treatment with gender-affirming
hormones, although results varied by bone region (lumber spine versus femoral neck) and
by population (transfemales versus transmales). However, z-scores suggest that bone
density remained lower in transfemales and transmales compared with an equivalent
cisgender population. Results from 1 study of gender-affirming hormones started during
adolescence reported statistically significant increases in blood pressure and body mass
index, and worsening of the lipid profile (in transmales) at age 22 years, although longer
term studies that report on cardiovascular event rates are required. Adverse events and
discontinuation rates associated with gender-affirming hormones were only reported in 1
study, and no conclusions can be made on these outcomes.