Paediatricians are to investigate the controversial drugs used to halt puberty in children who want to change sex, it was reported in late July.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health asked its ethics and law advisory committee to look at the ethics surrounding the rapid increase in the use of hormone blockers to treat under 16s. The drugs are currently only licensed for use in children under this age who start puberty early, before the age of nine, not for children who present as having ‘gender dysphoria’.
This investigation comes after the NHS clinic specialising in gender identity, The Tavistock and Portman Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), was criticised for ignoring its own study on the puberty blockers. The full results were not released, and parents at the clinic were not fully informed about the risks associated with the drugs that other international studies had revealed.
