Link. He’s only posted this on Twitter for whatever reason, here’s what he wrote:
Puberty Blockers. A 🧵
Children’s healthcare must always be led by evidence.
Medicine given to children must always be proven safe and effective first.
I know there’s lots of fear and anxiety.
Let me explain why this decision was taken.
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.
The NHS took the decision to stop the routine use of puberty blockers for gender incongruence/dysphoria in children.
They are establishing a clinical trial with NIHR to ensure the effects of puberty blockers can be safely monitored and provide the evidence we need.
The former Health Secretary issued an emergency order to extend the restriction on prescription to the private sector, which I am defending.
Puberty blockers have been used to delay puberty in children and young people who start puberty much too early.
Use in those cases has been extensively tested (a very different indication from use in gender dysphoria) and has met strict safety requirements.
This is because the puberty blockers are suppressing hormone levels that are abnormally high for the age of the child.
This is different to stopping the normal surge of hormones that occur in puberty. This affects children’s psychological and brain development.
We don’t yet know the risks of stopping pubertal hormones at this critical life stage.
That is the basis upon which I am making decisions.
I am treading cautiously in this area because the safety of children must come first.
Some of the public statements being made are highly irresponsible and could put vulnerable young people at risk.
I know there’s lots of fear and anxiety. I am determined to improve the quality of, and access to, care for trans people.
I hope this thread provides some context for the caution and care I am taking when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people.
The decisions I am taking will always be based on evidence, rather than politics or political pressure.
On the flipside of this: adolescence is an extremely important part of life where we make thousands of decisions that impact the whole rest of our lives. We sit exams that determine whether or not we do higher education, and therefore what opportunities we have later in life. Teenagers can get arrested and thrown in jail, or just excluded from schools and denied the essential education that they need in later life. There are far more children in jail than are on puberty blockers. The idea that individual agency starts at 18 is a myth.
And I don’t really agree with the comparison with alcohol and smoking. Puberty blockers aren’t an indulgence or vice - for a teenager going through gender dysphoria they can be the line between life and death. Plus, let’s face it - lots of us are drinking and smoking a few years before 18.
I agree that the age of 18 is arbitrary, but we as a society do draw the line at a point where we say whether someone is responsible enough to be considered an adult.
I wasn’t trying to say that puberty blockers or transitioning is a vice, I was trying to make the implication that the mind is still developing at these times and if we consider that to be true then maybe we should be holding off on a decision that will significantly impact them for the rest of their lives.
This can be said of most medical interventions, all you’re doing is singling out trans healthcare.