Nick Wallis in DM : NHS poised to stop prescribing puberty blockers (AND CROSS SEX HORMONES) to trans-identifying children under the age of 18

[Helleofabore]

https://archive.is/2zpo8

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15625107/NHS-stop-prescribing-puberty-blockers-trans-identifying-children.html

“The NHS is set to stop giving powerful cross-sex hormones to trans-identifying children under-18, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The move to pause the prescription of oestrogen and testosterone to 16 and 17 year olds could come as early as this week.

It is understood medical experts are firmly behind the ban on the roll-out to new patients - but there will be a brief consultation period.

It is a hugely significant milestone in the ongoing battle over trans issues.

Puberty blockers were banned for younger children in 2024, but NHS had continued to continue prescribing the hormones to some under 18 year olds, even though their benefits are unclear.”

And the article continues

Let’s see what happens with this leak over the coming weeks.

And yes the DM headline was confusing so I added a bit.

I expect that a NHS announcement will clear it up though.

My reading is that they will stop prescribing cross sex hormones for new under 18 patients.

About bloody time, children should have never been given these drugs.
I wonder how long it will take the TRAs to start saying this means that girls wont get the contraceptive pill either.

Excellent news, and Nick Wallis will have checked his sources.

I’m sure I’m not alone in being pleased Nick Willis is taking an interest in this topic. Excellent female journalists like Janice Turner, Hannah Barnes, Sonia Sodha, Sanchez Manning and Hadley Barnes have led the charge and we have so much to thank them for. Nick’s work on the Post Office scandal means he can reach across to new audiences & his credibility on the PO stuff means they’ll pay attention to what he’s saying about gender. He also credits the work of others who tackled this when there was a gender omerta in the MSM.

That's another bit of positive news. It will be fascinating to see who's still in favour of vulnerable children getting access to these dangerous drugs.

This is a really interesting article (2023) and I think has a lot to do with what's going on with the UK trial. Sweden, Finland and Denmark have all been at the forefront of developing gender medicine but have all withdrawn - evidence is evidence.

The journal of the Danish Medical Association "Ugeskrift for Læger" confirms the change has occurred quietly but resolutely

It takes time for things to work through, especially when having to do battle with the idea gender affirmation was the route to end discrimination!

Sorry, here's the link

Denmark Joins the List of Countries That Have Sharply Restricted Youth Gender Transitions | SEGM

If the benefits for children are unclear, the side effects serious and the long term impact on the brain unknown - is this also true for adults or is there a solid evidence base for prescribing hormones to (say) an 18 year old as opposed to a 17 year old?

The Scottish government are very hot on the brain not being full developed until someone is 25. Which is why under 25s are treated more leniently by the criminal justice system. Yet apparently they're able to make all the decisions about medical transition and to take brain-altering drug from age 18 or younger.

deginitelt. His interview on the Seen in Journalism podcast was excellent. He definitely is careful about not treading on the toes of women who have highlighted this fight. I’ll find a link

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/no-fear-no-favour-the-seen-in-journalism-podcast/id1840257603?i=1000727115136

I have spotted I called him Nick Willis in my post earlier. Wallis.

The SEEN in Journalism episode with NW is definitely worth a listen. It is balm to your ears to hear grown ups having a sensible conversation about this topic.

Seems good news although I don't imagine the NHS are currently prescribing to many under 18s

The vast majority appear to either go to private clinics such as Gender Plus, get prescriptions from abroad via the likes of Gender GP or Anne Health, or they buy hormones easily online to self medicate.

Excellent news if true. And yes, Nick has been very good at communicating these issues to a wider audience.

Just adding James Kirkup at the Spectator who was an excellent early male voice.

NHS England pauses new prescriptions of cross-sex hormones for under-18s

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly0ppdzj2yo

and here is the archive version

https://archive.is/xNH7L

“NHS England has paused new prescriptions of cross-sex hormones to 16 and 17-year-olds who question their gender, after a review found previous research into how harmful or beneficial the drugs may be was "really weak".

Hormones can be prescribed to help a person develop characteristics associated with their preferred gender rather than their biological sex, and may produce irreversible changes like a deeper voice or breast growth.

The health service said a small number of teenagers would be affected and launched a consultation on longer-term guidance over use of the treatment.

One trans advocacy group has said it would consider legal action over the move.”

And

”NHS England said young people who can not access the treatment will be offered other forms of care at three NHS gender clinics for children currently operating in England.
The review was triggered following the publication of a major report into children's gender care by Dr Hilary Cass in April 2024, which said "remarkably weak evidence" on medical interventions was letting children down.

NHS England said it commissioned 10 independent evidence reviews to examine different aspects of the use of testosterone or oestrogen, either on their own or with other drugs for young people who identify as a gender different to their biological sex.

It found there was not enough good quality evidence to conclude overall whether the drugs benefited young people or harmed them, so NHS England will not issue new prescriptions while it continues to consider responses from advocacy groups and healthcare professionals.”

There needs to be a ban on private prescriptions for this off-label use too. It all needs to be stopped.

Here is a better archive link for the Nick Wallis article in case the first one cuts off the article

https://archive.is/r40Ad

I think they used that sad picture in another similar article recently. Poor old Auntie will run out of heart wrenching images at this rate. Hopefully.

borntobequiet

I look at that pic and think it is a pic of a dawn and that the child is looking forward to new beginnings. It is one of those things, I guess, where they thought to grab anything that was not confronting. But it ended up being a purely subjective pic.

Here is the link to the standard

https://archive.is/hCFNQ

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/nhs-press-association-under18s-b1274001.html

and the guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/09/nhs-england-pauses-new-referrals-masculinising-feminising-hormone-treatment-under-18s

This has been very widely reported overnight including regional papers.

The Threadreader link to Hannah Barnes' comment on this announcement.

https://x.com/hannahsbee/status/2030957769168134510?s=20

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/2030957769168134510.html#google_vignette

Starts -

NEW: Today’s news that NHS England has paused new prescriptions of cross-sex hormones for under 18s a) seems a bigger deal than being suggested, b) raises several questions, c) has potentially significant consequences for any forthcoming trial of puberty blockers...

England has - for a period at least - ended the medical transition of children on the NHS. This puts a stop to 20+ years of practice. (The former Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service [GIDS] referred 16 year olds for puberty blockers from around the year 2000.)

The precise trigger for the pause seems unclear. What is the “in-depth review of all available clinical evidence” referred to by NHSE in their statement? I have asked NHSE. NHSE's statement says it was triggered by Dr Hilary Cass’s 2024 major report into children's gender care...

But one of the systematic evidence reviews that informed that final report and its recommendations had already looked at CSH use in under 18s. It pointed to a "lack of high-quality research assessing the outcomes of hormone interventions in adolescents [with] gender dysphoria..."

The review noted that few studies undertook long-term follow-up. "No conclusions can be drawn about the effect on gender-related outcomes, body satisfaction, psychosocial health, cognitive development or fertility."

^https://adc.bmj.com/content/109/Suppl_2/s48^

Maybe the new 'review' refers to the findings of the expert ‘Working Group’ – asked to look into this by Wes Streeting in April 2025? (and which put a stop to legal action – see my copy below)? If so, that was completed in June 2025. Why the delay?

^https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2025/05/exclusive-why-wes-streeting-changed-his-mind-on-cross-sex-hormones^

Expert evidence provided to the High Court last year, and which triggered the NHSE group, outlined multiple serious concerns about under 18s' use of hormones. One expert explicitly criticised NSHE's prescribing to 16- and 17-year-olds, saying there was no evidence behind it.

Prof James Palmer, national medical director for NHSE specialised services at NHSE says, “the available evidence does not support the continued use of masculinising or feminising hormones... for young people under 18.”
If so, why are private providers not included in the pause?

Finally, were the pause to be made permanent (after consultation), it has profound implications for any future trial of puberty blockers. The MHRA's recent request for a minimum age of 14, was in part because of fears of being on PBs for too long before hormones were available

That observation was when hormones were available at 16. What if they're unavailable until adulthood? If the trial goes ahead with unchanged age criteria, it could mean children remaining blocked for up to eight years, with all the risks that brings.

^https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6998b06d047739fe61889efb/Sponsor-letter110226.pdf^

A 90-day public consultation on a permanent policy of the NHS no longer routinely prescribing hormones for under 18s starts later today. Young people already receiving these treatments can continue, but will have to be reviewed individually by their clinical team.
-ends-

The link to the start of the thread will provide you with the screenshots that she has attached to the tweets as evidence.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/09/nhs-cross-sex-hormone-drugs-ban-under-18s/

https://archive.is/vYohx

The Telegraph

Cross-sex hormones will be banned for under-18s on the NHS, it has been announced.

A review by the health service found that the “available evidence does not support the continued use” of the drugs. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, had said in May he was considering a ban.

Cross-sex or gender-affirming hormones are sometimes given to people who believe they are transgender. Those born male who believe their true gender is female are given oestrogen, while those born female are given testosterone.
The NHS said patients already taking them would be able to continue, but no new referrals would be accepted, subject to the draft policy being formalised after a consultation period.

Prof James Palmer, a national medical director for NHS England, said the health service had “commissioned an in-depth review of all available clinical evidence for using oestrogen or testosterone ... to treat gender incongruence and dysphoria”.

He said: “This review has established that the available evidence does not support the continued use of masculinising or feminising hormones to treat gender incongruence or dysphoria for young people under 18.

“We are now launching a public consultation on a revised policy which would see the NHS remove this treatment as a routine intervention for young people under 18.”

And the article continues ...

SEEN in Journalism posted a good reminder about the group who is going to appeal which appears to be Translucent.

https://translucent.org.uk/about-us/

https://x.com/JournalismSEEN/status/2030827968981774841?s=20

I’m pulling up a chair for this one!

A little while back trans activists were urging (supposedly happily and successfully transitioned) adult trans people to opt out from having their (anonymised) NHS health records available to researchers.

Now they are scurrying about the internet in a panic because there is so little evidence of happy/successful transitions available to researchers that it seems possible that NHS adult transitions will be scaled right or withdrawn completely*

(*personally I suspect the court case that forced the NHS to provide penile inversion surgeries to men who claim to be women will make it hard to stop the practise entirely but the lack of willing urology surgeons lining up to replace the current crop of soon-to-retirees might make it an irrelevant debate anyway!)