The government has announced another extension to the ban on the sale and supply of puberty blockers by private providers until 31 December.
The emergency ban, brought in by former health secretary Victoria Atkins in May, was implemented following publication of the landmark Cass Review, which concluded that children and young people seeking NHS care for gender-related distress have been let down by the ‘remarkably weak evidence base’.
It makes it a criminal offence to supply puberty blockers outside the terms of the order.
Prior to the ban on private supply, NHS England had banned routine prescription of puberty blockers on the NHS for children with gender dysphoria, after a working group found there was not sufficient evidence to support their ‘safety or clinical effectiveness’.
In July, current health secretary Wes Streeting defended the ban, arguing children’s healthcare ‘must always be led by evidence’.
Mr Streeting wrote on X: ‘Cass Review found there is not enough evidence about the long-term impact of puberty blockers for gender incongruence to know whether they are safe or not, nor which children might benefit from them.
‘The evidence should have been established before they were ever prescribed.’
He said that following the NHSE decision to stop routine prescription of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria, a clinical trial is being established to ‘provide the evidence we need’.
The ban was also extended by the Labour government in August until the 26 November, and expanded to cover Northern Ireland, following agreement from the Northern Ireland Executive.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘The NHS is reforming gender identity services to provide all-round holistic care to children and adults.
‘As part of this, the government has extended a temporary ban on puberty blockers to 31 December, as we consider responses to a consultation on whether to make this indefinite.’
