Letters arguing research could harm participating children sent to medical regulators, health secretary and NHS
Campaigners have begun a legal process intended to suspend a clinical trial of puberty blockers on the grounds that the research could prove harmful to the children taking part.
The study was commissioned in response to last year’s review of gender identity services by Dr Hilary Cass, which found that gender medicine was an “area of remarkably weak evidence” and “built on shaky foundations”.
Originally used to treat early-onset puberty, puberty blockers had been prescribed off-label to children with gender dysphoria until the NHS banned their use last year after the Cass review.
Legal letters have been issued to the medical regulators responsible for the trial, and copied to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and NHS England. The action has been launched by campaigners from the Bayswater Support Group, made up of parents of children and young adults who identify as trans or non-binary, along with the psychotherapist James Esses, who treats children with gender dysphoria, and Keira Bell, who began taking puberty blockers as a teenager before later detransitioning.
