Two health boards in Scotland, including the only gender clinic in the country for children, will pause the prescription of puberty blockers to new patients.
The NHSGGC is home to Scotland’s only gender clinic for under-18s—the Sandyford clinic—which also confirmed that patients aged 16 to 17 will no longer be prescribed cross-sex hormones until they are 18.
Both boards said they had deferred starting new patients on puberty blockers in mid-March, following the same decision by NHS England. Patients already prescribed puberty blockers will continue to receive them.
Director of public health at NHSGGC, Dr. Emilia Crighton, said: “The findings informing the Cass Review are important and we have reviewed the impact on our clinical pathways.
“The next step from here is to work with the Scottish Government and academic partners to generate evidence that enables us to deliver safe care for our patients.”
The Cass Effect
Transgender Trend said that it was “excellent news that Sandyford appears to be listening and taking note of the Cass Review.”“It’s an about-face for them because they have been strong supporters of giving irreversible treatments to children for some time. It’s also in contrast to the foot-dragging of the Scottish Parliament, which is saying it still needs to assess the Cass report,” the campaign group told The Epoch Times.
Transgender Trend said the decision by the health boards shows that doctors and clinicians “have realised the enormity of the weight of evidence” against the medical approach for treating gender dysphoria in children.
“This just shows the effect of the Cass Review. Once people read it and properly absorb the findings, there can be no justification whatsoever for giving children puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, both of which have been shown to have no benefit and to have a low to a very, very low evidential base for any benefits,” said Transgender Trend.
The child advocacy group told The Epoch Times that these recent events mark the “start of a return to reality,” and more people will become familiar with the Cass Review’s findings. Not just locally, but “internationally, as well, because the effect of the Cass Review doesn’t stop at the borders of the UK.”
Patient Safety ‘Our Priority’
The executive medical director of NHS Lothian, which treats those aged 17 and over at its Chalmers gender identity clinic, Dr. Tracey Gillies, called the Cass Review “a significant piece of work into how the NHS can better support children and young people who present with gender dysphoria.”Dr. Gillies said, “Patient safety must always be our priority and it is right that we pause this treatment to allow more research to be carried out.”
Scotland’s health secretary, Neil Gray, said the Scottish Government welcomed the joint statement from the two health boards. Mr. Gray said that the Cass Review’s final report and findings “are being closely considered by both the Scottish Government and health boards, in the context of how such health care can be best delivered in Scotland.”
