UK High Court judge upholds government ban on puberty blockers

LONDON – A High Court judge on Monday upheld the British government’s emergency ban on puberty blockers, saying a study that found “very substantial risks and very limited benefits” of the treatment supported the restriction as potentially harmful.

Judge Beverley Lang said a review commissioned by England’s National Health Service concluded that gender care was an area of ​​“remarkably weak evidence” and that young people had been caught up in “stormy social discourse”.

The group TransActual and a young man who cannot be identified due to court order sought to challenge former Health Secretary Victoria Atkins’ decision to ban the prescription of hormones that can interrupt the development of puberty. They are sometimes prescribed to help children with gender dysphoria by giving them more time to consider options that could include changing gender.

The judge rejected the challenge, saying the ban was legal. The ban restricts the NHS from supplying the drug outside of clinical trials and prevents it from being prescribed by private providers.

The National Health Service stopped prescribing puberty blockers last yearsaying there was not enough evidence about the benefits and harms.

Chay Brown, director of health at TransActual, said the government decided to ban blockers and then found ways to justify it.

“We are seriously concerned about the safety and well-being of young trans people in the UK,” Brown said. “In recent years they have come to view the UK medical establishment as paying lip service to their needs and all too happy to weaponize its own existence in pursuit of a now discredited culture war.”

Although the ban was implemented by the Conservative government that was ousted from power earlier this month, the new Labor government could make it permanent.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he welcomed the decision, although he said he was acting with caution. He said he was working with the NHS to start a clinical trial into puberty blockers.

“Children’s health care must be evidence-based,” Streeting said. “We must therefore act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people.”