Trans teens ‘begged Wes Streeting not to ban puberty blockers’ weeks before ban

Transgender teenagers pleaded with the Health Secretary to not ban puberty blockers just weeks before they were barred indefinitely, their parents have said.

Wes Streeting announced last month the drugs will be banned for trans teens under 18 with gender dysphoria because of an ‘unacceptable’ safety risk.

‘We need to act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people, and follow the expert advice,’ Streeting said.

The medication acts as a pause button on puberty by stopping the body from producing estrogen or testosterone. Fewer than 100 young people are actively using puberty blockers.

At the time, a temporary ban on the drugs as treatment for gender dysphoria – distress over the mismatch of their sex assigned at birth and gender identity – was in place.

Hannah, who is in her 40s living in the East of England, told Metro she and her son met with Streeting in October to discuss puberty blockers.

Streeting’s office invited roughly nine children, their parents and guardians and representatives of two LGBTQ+ youth organisations to discuss extending the ban, Hannah, who is using a pseudonym, said.

The MP for Ilford North asked the room to be as ‘brutal’ as they could.

The meeting at the Department of Health and Social Care offices in Westminster was one of the ‘worst experiences’ of Hannah’s life. ‘Apart from one positive story, all these children were in pain,’ she said.

Two attendees said not having access to puberty blockers led to their children ‘taking their own lives’, while others said their teens self-harm.

Hannah added: ‘Teenagers were begging them not to ban puberty blockers because it was harming them. They were seeing no hope, these kids were looking them in the eyes and saying: “My life is over”.

‘There was one child who said that having been on puberty blockers at the right time, they are now on the hormones they need to be on – they were thriving and never had any problems.’

Hannah read out a statement her son had written, saying the ban had left him ‘really depressed and anxious’. The teenager has been on the waiting list for gender-affirming healthcare on the NHS for four and a half years.

‘He’s approaching puberty, which is obviously having a serious effect on him,’ she said.

Puberty blockers were previously offered by the NHS as a treatment for under-18s with gender dysphoria. The only available options now include therapy, counselling and hormone therapy for those ‘who meet strict criteria’.

This followed an NHS-commissioned report by top pediatrician Hillary Cass that recommended that gender-affirming medical care for adolescents be restricted. The Cass Review said evidence backing the ‘powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks’ is ‘weak’.

The ban does not apply to being used as a treatment for precocious puberty, where puberty occurs at an unusually early age, as well as conditions for over-18s such as prostate cancer.

‘My child cannot understand why he’s been denied medication that his friends sitting next to him in class could get who’s cisgender,’ Hannah explained, using a term for people whose gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

‘I do not know how to explain to my gender why it’s safe if you’re cisgender but harmful if you’re transgender.’

Streeting spent the meeting, which lasted about 90 minutes, ‘stony-faced’ while aides around him took notes, Hannah said.

‘Even when the kids were talking about self-harm and suicide, there was just no reaction on his face at all. He’s a politician and maybe that’s how he’s trained to react,’ the mum said.

‘Put it this way, the kids had to leave the room and have breaks. I was in floods of tears the whole time.’

Streeting told the families and youth club organisers that he understands how trans youngsters feel.

‘He’s gay and had difficulty coming to terms with that as a child, so he wanted to do the right thing for these kids,’ Hannah said.

When the meeting finished, Hannah said she handed Streeting a stack of letters written by families of trans youth as well as a research paper.

Dr Natacha Kennedy, a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, wrote the paper. She analysed surveys of parents and guardians of trans young people following the temporary ban in May.

‘It found a great deal of harm was being caused to these young people denied access to puberty blockers,’ she said of her analysis, published in October. ‘These young people are in effect having their lives ruined by the puberty blocker ban.’

‘In particular, these young people reported that this stress, worry, depression and anxiety was a constant feature of their lives, it was with them 24/7 without any let-up.

‘These kids’ experiences contrasted with those who were prescribed puberty blockers just before the ban was enforced. They were relaxed, hopeful, happy, active, sociable and thriving.’

Susie Green, the co-founder of the trans healthcare provider Anne, questioned how Streeting could ban puberty-suppressing treatments after meeting with families like Hannah and her son.

‘He ignored them to pursue a political agenda,’ Green said. ‘Politics has no place in healthcare, and the state-sanctioned damage that has been done will be laid at his feet.’

Critics of dispensing puberty blockers to trans young people have welcomed Streeting’s ban. Cass said that ‘essential safeguards are not being provided’ and more research needs to be done.

‘Puberty blockers are powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks, and that is why I recommended that they should only be prescribed following a multi-disciplinary assessment and within a research protocol,’ she said.

Streeting said he plans to set up a clinical trial into the use of puberty blockers in the spring to establish ‘a clear evidence base for the use of this medicine’. The number of trial participants will not be capped.

Yet the ban has left Hannah and her son feeling unsafe. Their only option, she added, is moving abroad so they can seek gender healthcare.

‘Quite honestly, the ban is pointless. There’s no way as a parent you’re going to sit back and allow your child to go through Hell. You’re going to do whatever it is you need to do,’ Hannah added.

In response, Streeting told Metro: ‘Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people.

‘Dr Cass’ review also raised safety concerns around the lack of evidence for these medical treatments. We need to act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people, and follow the expert advice.

‘We are working with NHS England to open new gender identity services, so people can access holistic health and wellbeing support they need. We are setting up a clinical trial into the use of puberty blockers next year, to establish a clear evidence base for the use of this medicine.’

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