Health Secretary updates MPs on Government and NHS England’s work to improve gender identity services & implement recommendations of Dr Hilary Cass’s independent review. Includes extension of puberty blocker ban to Nov 26th & review of adult svcs

A lot has changed. We will find out very shortly if the change is heading in the right direction.

I think this should be the first stage of any future study. Cass was refused access to the previous data. This should be collected and analysed before any more children are experimented on.

I'd wonder if they could use the data on children which have already been experimented on, but then I remembered the Tavistock didn't actually collect any data, so they can't.

It wasn’t rejected last time.

To add:

NHS England previously used to talk about the impact of puberty blockers on the developing teenage brain being unknown. See first screenshot and link below to 2021 archive:

https://archive.ph/LwIm3

This wording about the uncertainty re puberty blockers has now disappeared completely. See second screenshot and link to current page:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/treatment/

It is impossible to have a safe, ethical trial where the risk of permanent brain damage is unknown.

I read this and thought it represented a nuanced and balanced approach to the issue.

There is as yet no convincing evidence on the risks/ benefits of puberty blockers so they are going to collect it via a properly constructed, ethical trial. When they say they are recruiting candidates, it will not be a case of taking anyone who rocks up. There will be some children/young people for whom puberty blockers in a controlled trial represent a valid approach when risk/ benefit is taken into a account eg the 5 year old with precocious puberty or the suicidal 12 year old with long standing gender dysphoria for whom other interventions have been ineffective. Parents will be part of the consent process alonside clinicians and psychiatrists - as they are now in other potentially dangerous drug trials involving young people.

I assume that the trial will be lengthy as in most cases risk/benefit will only become clear once the young person has reached their late 20s early 30s at the earliest.

Came here to say exactly this!

"Safely" by what standard?!?!

When the impacts on brain development are unknown, it's a terrible choice of adverb.

Unless they simply mean that the monitoring itself will be safe... e.g. children can have brain scans done in a safe environment.

FFS.

I'd be very interested in the answers.

I think we need to see how (or if) they have approved the ethics and if they have asked the right questions and if not why not? I think this can be stopped if they are made to face up to the reality and not just try and gloss over it.

If blockers are unsafe, they're not rendered magically safe by the fact of being part of a trial.

'Within this trial, the effects of puberty blockers can be safely monitored'

Fucking how?!

Hmm. I wonder how they'll overcome the consent issues in relation to consenting to future sterility, loss of sexual function, impairment of brain / bone development etc?

I can't see any trial (except in relation to life limiting illness) accepting that a pre pubertal child can consent to all of the above and more? But presumably the trans extremists have such a hold on this aspect of child medicine, they need to go through the motions to demonstrate this rather than expect medics to practise ethical medical care?

This is worrying. They are talking about the trial as if it’s a certainty. Presumably that means they have ethical approval…

“In partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), NHS England is launching a clinical trial to assess the potential benefits and harms of puberty suppressing hormones.

“Within this trial, the effects of puberty blockers can be safely monitored, and the research will give government and the NHS the evidence we need to decide whether they can be used as a safe and effective treatment. The trial aims to begin recruiting participants early in the new year.”