This moral panic about puberty blockers endangers the lives of trans kids

NHS England has this week announced that children with gender dysphoria will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers, citing ‘not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness’.

From the start of next month, they will be available, but only through research trials or in ‘exceptional circumstances’ – in a move that trans youth charity Mermaids slammed as ‘deeply disappointing’ from a health service that is ‘failing trans youth’.

As soon as I read this news, I was saddened to see hard won progress for trans people being stripped away due to what I believe is culture war fear-mongering.

If you’re unfamiliar, puberty blockers are sometimes prescribed to trans or gender diverse children. This is a treatment that essentially buys time – delaying puberty in order to allow children and parents more time to decide on next steps, such as gender-affirming care (like hormones, or much later, surgery).

Multiple studies suggest puberty blockers are safe, reversible, and have a positive impact on outcomes for children.

Now, you might hear that NHS England has ceased prescribing puberty blockers and think it must be due to them being overprescribed – a huge surge which required the brakes to be applied.

However, the Telegraph reports that in the 12 months leading up to July 2023, just 83 children were prescribed this treatment on the NHS. Eighty-three.

To me, this is about denying the existence of trans people and their right to care

That’s why I believe that we are clearly deep in the grip of a moral panic, and it seems NHS England is the latest institution in the UK to capitulate. 

Inflamers of this moral panic – like many before it – claim to be concerned with ‘protecting children’, which feels like a familiar tactic to any queer person. But it couldn’t be more clear to me that the pushbacks we’re seeing are not about safeguarding, but about denying care to trans people.

Notably, cisgender children have been prescribed the same puberty blockers for precocious puberty for years (and as far as I can see, there are no plans to halt this treatment).

So this doesn’t feel like it’s about safety. To me, it’s about denying the existence of trans people and their right to care.

Gender affirmation for gender diverse kids is often proven to be the best way to help them have good outcomes. Many studies show that kids who are affirmed in their gender identity are as healthy as their cis peers, as opposed to high rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.

Denying a child’s lived experience delivers nothing but pain and misery. Certainly, as a gay man, I can assure you that there are no good outcomes from such denial.

British society has mostly accepted that gay people exist – that we have an innate, unprovable thing about us that makes us same-sex attracted. Why can’t that logic be extended to trans people? Ask yourself, why would so many people choose what is so often a difficult path if they didn’t feel they had to?

I certainly knew I was different from my peers around age six, even though I couldn’t have explained it to you

Gay people exist, and therefore gay children exist. Naturally it follows that as trans people exist, so do trans children. Once you accept that, it would be unconscionable to deny them the thing that has been shown to have the best outcomes.

Faux cries of ‘won’t someone think of the children’ falls apart as soon as you refuse to actually help the ones asking for help.

The anti-trans lobby will often say that children are too young to know what’s best for them, can be easily swayed and shouldn’t be allowed to make such big decisions. Just like with many gay people, trans people will often tell you they knew they were trans from a very young age. 

Many of my friends say they knew as young as four or five. I certainly knew I was different from my peers around age six, even though I couldn’t have explained it to you.

How can children be too young to make decisions about their bodily autonomy and yet be old enough to be tried in a criminal court (as young as age 10), join the army (16), or have sex (16) – it doesn’t make sense.

Thankfully, those currently prescribed puberty blockers won’t see any changes to their treatment and Mermaids stresses that this latest announcement ‘is a pause on prescribing, not a ban’. Currently, Scotland has no plans to alter their policy on the medication.

But if the worst happens and a ban is put in place, I believe that it will not stop all children from accessing them – it simply shunts the issue into private medical care or the black market, which would disproportionately affect poorer people.

As soon as I read this news, I was saddened to see hard won progress for trans people being stripped away due to what I believe is culture war fear-mongering

At the end of the day, we need to acknowledge that trans people exist and have a right to do so.

Unfortunately, so much of the debate seems to be spearheaded by people who think being trans is a perversion or mental illness, and simply not real. How can we possibly help trans children when that is the starting place?

Instead, we have Liz Truss submitting a bill to end the routine prescription of puberty blockers to trans kids by reinforcing it in law, as well as preventing them being supplied privately. We have new school guidance that states there’s ‘no general duty that says schools and colleges must support a child to take steps that are part of “social transition”.’ And we have this latest decision from NHS England.

In my view, none of this helps children, it just helps scared adults with a threatened worldview maintain their illusions.

With so much misinformation and panicked language floating around, it is reasonable to be concerned. Everyone wants what’s best for children.

But my suggestion would be that if you have concerns or doubts, why not have a conversation with a friend or loved one who is trans. 

And if you don’t have a trans person in your life you can speak to, perhaps you’re not in a good position to have an opinion on trans people’s rights.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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