‘Lambs to the slaughter’: Anger as under-16s put on puberty blocker trial

Campaigners have threatened legal action to stop an NHS sex study that will inject dozens of children under 10 with puberty blockers.

The trial, part of the £10.7 million ‘Pathways’ research programme, which will examine the effects of banned puberty-suppressing drugs on young people’s brains, was controversially given the green light yesterday.

For the first time, potential brain damage triggered by drugs will be studied by monitoring the brains of young children.

They are expected to take the drugs for up to two years and be monitored until they reach early adulthood. Trial findings could take up to four years.

The use of drugs that delay or prevent puberty in teenagers with gender dysphoria was highlighted by Dr. They were banned after the Cass Review, led by Hilary Cass, decided there was insufficient clinical evidence to determine whether their use was dangerous.

He said he had been subjected to ‘vile’ online abuse after his findings were published and was advised not to use public transport due to concerns for his personal safety. Cass recommended that more research is needed to assess whether the drugs are safe.

Opponents, including Maya Forstater of the charity Sex Matters, say the treatment could cause irreversible, lifelong damage and that exposing children to “experimental treatment” is “stupid and unethical”.

They have threatened a legal challenge to prevent the trial from continuing, which is expected to begin in the new year.

Whether puberty blockers should be allowed to children is at the center of many pro-trans protests in London and other UK cities

Keira Bell, who previously took legal action against the Tavistock Gender Clinic for giving her puberty blockers as a teenager, said today that she and others will launch a legal challenge ‘unless this action is stopped immediately on the grounds that it is unlawful’.

Ms Bell, who later said she should never have been exposed to drugs in her youth, claimed on social media: ‘More than 500 children are expected to be given these drugs, which have been shown to cause cognitive impairment among other life-altering effects.’

Campaigner James Esses said drugs caused irreversible physical and emotional damage and that ‘leading more children towards such harm’ was like ‘leading lambs to slaughter’.

Meanwhile, campaign group Transgender Trend said there was ‘no justification for doing this experiment again’.

In response to mounting criticism, Health Minister Wes Streeting took to the stage this morning to defend the hearing.

She said: ‘Gender non-conforming children deserve safe, compassionate and effective care. Health care must always be evidence-based.’

Chief Investigator of the study, Professor Emily Simonoff, said she noticed that views on the issue were polarised, but ‘right in the middle are young people and their parents who attend services, are gender non-conforming and don’t know what to do’.

Ms Simonoff, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at King’s College Hospital, will trial 226 boys and girls under 16, about half of whom are expected to be injected with the drug: ‘This study, alongside other Pathways studies, aims to provide the same level of evidence for young people with gender non-conformity as we provide for any other disorder for people attending NHS services.’

The quality of previous studies claiming beneficial effects of puberty blockers was ‘poor’, Dr Hilary Cass tells Cass Review

Professor Emily Simonoff, who led the NHS gender trial that will inject dozens of children with puberty blockers, says she is ‘so proud’ to lead the landmark study

He told the BBC today that the trial would be subject to the same stringent approvals and regulations as any other medical research in the UK, commenting:

‘I am very proud to be the principal investigator of the Pathways study. I realize this is an extremely important question, and it’s very important for young people and their parents who are really undecided right now about what kind of healthcare they would like.

‘We hope that the trial and larger studies will allow us to provide better information about treatment for gender non-conforming young people, their families and those treating them moving forward.’

It is understood that children selected for the trial will be under the age of 16, who have already accessed gender services and have undergone intensive medical or psychological screening.

Professor Simonoff said that as well as looking at the ‘balance between the possible benefits of drugs on mental health and quality of life, and the possible risks and harms to physical health’, ‘one of the key things we did was to look at whether there were any possible risks to brain development, by doing the first study to look at cognitive development, which is thinking, learning and memory’.

He said: ‘We will scan the brains of young people with and without puberty-suppressing hormones; ‘This is the first time this has ever been done.’

Professor Simonoff said the size of the study was needed to ensure that “the sample was large enough to ensure that we did not miss the true effect if it existed, and also large enough to ensure that we did not conclude a positive or beneficial effect that did not exist”.

He said: ‘This study has passed all the usual approvals and regulatory reviews involving the Human Research Agency and the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

‘In the UK, there is a very high level of scrutiny to ensure that clinical trials are conducted properly, but we also look at young people’s psychological state, emotional wellbeing, physical health and quality of life, as well as any possible adverse effects. ‘We do this in a very structured and standardized way.’

He told Radio 4’s Today program that the study would be recommended by ‘people with lived experience – both people with trans experience and parents and carers who come from a range of experiences of gender diversity or gender non-conformity’.

‘We don’t expect a one-size-fits-all finding,’ he said.

Following the closure of the controversial Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in London last year, trial recruitment will be the only way under-18s in the UK will be able to receive puberty blockers. Clinic was giving puberty blockers to young children