Mick Hartley

More from the Times on that puberty blocker ban:

Whistleblowers, campaigners and former patients welcomed the NHS ban as a vindication of their warnings for the best part of a decade.

As far back as 2015, staff from the clinic, also known as the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), told a select committee hearing that its treatment protocols were safe, regulated and based on guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, “which are almost universally observed in Europe”.

In fact, the guidelines of that US-based organisation were not based on medical evidence, and there was little evidence about what the off-label use of these drugs really did to the brains and bodies of young patients.

We now know quite a bit more about the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) after the recent leaks – basically a trans activist group masquerading as a serious professional medical organisation.

Keira Bell, who started taking puberty blockers aged 16 and went on to a medical transition she now regrets, said the ban was “a step in the right direction”.

She added: “However, it is insane that these drugs were ever offered on a national, publicly funded health service, which is supposed to be entirely evidence-based and … provides assured safety and care.

“I am glad that the NHS seems to be regaining its feet, but great damage has already been done. Puberty isn’t caused by a mechanical switch you can just turn on or off. You’re blocking all hormones that would otherwise cause a natural process critical to not only your physical development but your cognitive development too. You can’t just start the process again. These are chemical castration drugs used on sex offenders and those with prostate cancer.”

She said she was worried that young people will “migrate over to the private market. It is still important to stay vigilant, as children are still very much at danger.”

Jacob, 21, a transgender man, called taking puberty blockers “the worst decision I’ve ever made”.

He said: “I cringe when I think that for four years, from the age of 12 to 16, I had that thick sludge injected into my thigh every month, and I still don’t really know what it was or what it did. It made me feel like a lab rat. Coming off those drugs was the best thing I ever did.”

Born female, Jacob still identifies as male, but said he felt pressured to take puberty blockers “to prove how trans I was.” He added: “It’s awful that [the NHS] put so many young people through it, without actually knowing if it was safe. It’s genuinely scary.”

Dr David Bell, a senior psychiatrist and former staff governor at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, wrote to the leaders of Gids in 2018 urging them to suspend hormone treatment for children who wished to change gender until there was better evidence of the outcomes. He was ignored.

“It’s not the first time in medicine that treatments have been celebrated without any real evidence. [But] it’s extraordinary how a completely un-evidence-based so-called treatment very quickly became the dominant paradigm to treat children who presented with gender distress. Yet those who had their eyes open, who were worried about the psychological and physical consequences for these children, had their concerns shut down.

“Children and young people should have never been put on that pathway. It’s done a lot of damage. So I’m very relieved. Hopefully other countries in the world will look to this ban and see we have made a very important step to continuing to separate ourselves from what has been a tragic mistake.” Dr Anna Hutchinson, a clinical psychologist who left Gids over her concerns about puberty blockers, said: “It’s good to see the NHS returning to an evidence-based approach for helping these distressed children. The evidence for the benefits and risks of puberty blockers is missing. Attention must now turn to any proposed research trial to ensure that this too is ethical and robust.”

Stephanie Davies-Arai, director of the campaign group Transgender Trend, said: “The risks of sterility and bone damage are well known, and there is increasing concern that children’s cognitive development is impaired irreversibly. Since 2014 the Tavistock Gids has been prescribing blockers to children in the absence of any evidence that this treatment is safe. We hope this signals the end of what has been a medical experiment on the bodies and minds of a generation of vulnerable children.”

“Many have been calling on the NHS for years now to return to an evidence-based approach. This is a definite step in the right direction. The significance of NHS England’s statement that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty blockers cannot be overstated, given the success that activist lobby groups have had in portraying them as a harmless and reversible treatment.” Maya Forstater, executive director of Sex Matters, a human rights organisation that campaigns for clarity in the law, said: “This a momentous development in the course correction of NHS England’s approach to treating childhood gender distress.