Why the NHS puberty blocker trial is appalling

[Soontobe60]

Stella O’Malley from Genspect telling it like it is - that a state endorsed trial of puberty blockers for gender dysphoric children should NOT go ahead.
the NHS are not walking into this nightmare blindly - there are enough experts out there telling them what will happen happen to these children if they’re given these life changing drugs.
https://x.com/genspect/status/1989896741358113127?s=61&t=gKvvk-rWmOlYFGMZN8QVvQ

It's in the Telegraph now

https://archive.ph/MUDEh

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/17/children-cannot-consent-puberty-blocker-trial-wes-streeting/

Yep.

Lack of leadership here is not going to look good if/when he goes for a leadership bid.

You can't blame it all on Cass.

At some point, somebody has to take responsibility.

'Both of those statements are true. Both of those statements are consistent, because when I put in place the permanent ban on puberty blockers, I was confronted with a whole group of young people and their parents who looked me in the eye and told me that I was doing real harm to them, to their lives.'

What is the actual 'harm' that is being discussed?

Because for one thing, I've seen males who had their puberty 'blocked', and then transitioned, and they are still very visibly and obviously male.

There is no way to stop a boy being male.

There is no way to stop a girl being female.

The whole premise is bullshit. It's become a form of holy wafer. Symbolic of whether children are granted permission to self harm, or not.

No amount of distress, and no amount of drugs or surgery will change anyone's sex.

No but they would be very valuable in the porn industry.

I'm sorry, but at this point, given that the risks are visible from space, I have zero belief that the main aim is to help the kids.

There is something powerful pushing this forward and it's absolutely nothing good.

The criteria to get into the trial are really not that high. Gender dysphoria for 2 years, doesn't have severe active psychiatric condition, MDT agrees - that's pretty much it. There's no specific exclusion of children who are same sex attracted or have been sexually abused for example, or have an eating disorder - the local gender clinic and trial team just have to say their mental health is stable. It's a low bar.

@LikeAHandleInTheWind Thanks from what Wes was saying it sounded a high bar. I appreciate the input from posters who have expertise around clinical trials.

Just to add...

The number of powerful men who have already been caught watching/producing child abuse videos is massive. On both the left and the right. To be able to get around the legalities of this must be more than tempting to these utter fucks.

And if successful, to then attempt to protect those (now) vulnerable adults would be a legislative nightmare. The scheme was sanctioned by the government!

Honestly, I can't think of a more perfect plan for achieving this goal.

And why weren't the previous kids followed up? I'm sure @Seethlaw mentioned that many of the transitioners she knew where now on OnlyFans.

Maybe that's why.

There are a lot of disabled people, and farmers and elderly people looking Streeting and other government officials in the eye and telling them sincere and passionately felt beliefs with actual evidenced harms, and yet the government does not care. Any minute now we're going to start on a massive withdrawal of SEND services to kids, and there'll be distraught parents and kids begging there too. And government officials again won't care.

It's only ever these kids who are the exception, the ones whose feelings matter.

It doesn't hold together. Nothing about the gender agenda ever does.

Finally bashed out a letter to my Mp. Libdem. Never spoken any which way on this, but is ex-military and mostly sensible. We'll see.

Dear xxxx

I am writing to you as a GP and your constituent with very great concerns about the government (and NHS) plans to run a high-profile and heavily criticised trial of Puberty Blockers in children with gender identity issues.

In case you are unaware of this trial, I direct your attention to the letter written by Rosie Duffield MP, and so far signed by one Liberal Democrat MP and two Lib Dem peers asking extremely important questions of the Health Secretary (see here: www.rosieduffieldmp.co.uk/post/rosie-leads-cross-party-campaign-to-stop-the-puberty-blocker-trial). Mr Streeting was obliged to address emergency questions on the Commons today and claimed he was being led by clinicians.

Many clinicians believe that this clinical trial is entirely flawed and will both fail to answer the questions it is designed to ask and will cause the recruited children, knowingly, significant harm. Whilst the Cass report suggested a trial may be useful, it also suggested the EXISTING patients (those who have been treated with blockers by GIDS before its ignominious closure, estimated to number around 2000) are followed up to understand the natural history of these children and any observable harms and benefits. For further information on the ethical issues thrown up by any such trust, please see:
can-sg.org/2025/05/07/why-puberty-blocker-trial-faces-ethical-challenges/

I am a clinician with very significant concerns about iatrogenic harm caused to children and young adults in the name of 'gender medicine' having ......(redacted for privacy). There is a great deal more to say on the subject, and I would be very happy to discuss further.

I am writing this letter to ask you to support science, ethics, good care of patients and the prevention of state-sanctioned harm to young people by signing Ms Duffield's letter, or otherwise showing your support to those in your party who are raising concerns on this subject. Whilst my language may sound utterly hyperbolic, a decade of unevidenced rogue prescribing by GIDS has taught us that such state-permitted horror can happen in plain sight. This history has given me the courage to speak out in a contentious and toxic debate - I am hoping it will for you too.

Yours sincerely,

Dr xxxx

Quite.

'Real harms' happening day in day out go unremarked.

What was the cost of this farcical trial?

Tom Tugenhadt joined the protest today alongside Claire Fox and Rosie Duffield.

Good to see.

Also, this survey showed around 2/3 of the UK don't support the trial.

www.transgendertrend.com/opinion-poll-stop-nhs-puberty-blocker-trial/

Ah, no, sorry, that wouldn't be me. I don't have much experience at all with trans people and Onlyfans.

Which doesn't mean that I disagree with what you're saying, mind you, most especially on the matter of following up on the previous cohort of transed kids! They exist, they have things to say, they should absolutely be examined before messing around with yet more kids.

Transgender Trend have published a detailed analysis of how and why the adult groups have refused to comply with the demands to share data for the data linkage study It suggests that the data will as usual show the devastating impact pbs etc have on young bodies, hence them keeping it hidden. It's a lengthy piece and worth reading:

https://www.transgendertrend.com/data-linkage-study/data

Thank you. I have just only read through this quickly, but am shocked to see that though one repeatedly hears that ‘Cass recommended a puberty blocker trial’ as justification for the incipient unethical trial, there has been no real mention of how Cass had written at length about the essential and prior need for a follow- up of the thousands of previously treated gender questioning children as a priority.

You would have thought Streeting could have properly taken account of this.

Even some Democrats are waking up to this

https://archive.ph/2Scdl

https://unherd.com/newsroom/even-some-democrats-are-breaking-ranks-on-trans/

It has taken them long enough 🙄

Well, the NHS can stop now and accept the catastrophe, or continue to harm more children and young people and worsen/increase the eventual inevitable outcomes.

They've chosen to postpone.

Thank you.

I wondered if there may be further evidence for the campaign to stop the Streeting puberty-blocker trial:
The HHS today published a statement saying that “current evidence does not support claims that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries are safe and effective treatments for pediatric gender dysphoria.”

What is the HHS please?

In the manner of Mrs Doyle trying to get another cup of tea in.

What is the HHS please?

In the USA,
HHS primarily refers to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that protects the health of all Americans, provides essential human services (like Medicare, Medicaid, CDC, FDA), and administers over 100 programs, ensuring care for vulnerable populations.

Emma Hilton (or someone else?) seems to have found minutes of the ethics committee meeting:

https://nitter.net/FondOfBeetles/status/2002082134094409777#m

This study just gives more yikes at every level & the bloody thing isn't running yet. (Nor should it run.)

Doesn't it? Every day, more shit. Now it just seems so bare-faced.

Going back to one of my earlier posts on this. It appears in the ethics meeting minutes that they will indeed recruit more people if they get the numbers.

Added to which, their main ethical consideration seems to be 'are there enough kids on this to be studied?'. Not 'what is it they are treating and is sterilisation the appropriate treatment?'.