England Joins Growing List of Jurisdictions That Protect Children From Puberty Blockers

The U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) is officially banning healthcare professionals from prescribing puberty blockers to children.

The NHS guidelines for puberty blockers now say:

Puberty blockers (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) are not available to children and young people for gender incongruence or gender dysphoria because there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness.

The guidelines also note that cross-sex hormones often given in conjunction with puberty blockers may cause irreversible changes, and that long-term cross-sex hormone use may cause temporary or permanent infertility.

In 2022 the NHS closed its Tavistock gender clinic that gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for many years.

A government investigation revealed healthcare professionals at the Tavistock clinic pressured families into subjecting their children to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the procedures and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.

In 2021, lawmakers in Arkansas overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.

The SAFE Act is a good law that prevents doctors in Arkansas from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. 

Unfortunately, the SAFE Act has been tied up in court for more than two years, and a federal judge in Little Rock has blocked the state from enforcing the law. However, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office is appealing the case.

Sex-change surgeries and procedures can leave children sterilized and scarred for life.

Researchers do not know the long term effects puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones can have on kids. That is why many experts agree that subjecting children to sex-change procedures is experimental, at best.

Not long after Arkansas passed the SAFE Act, a major hospital in Sweden announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids, and last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration added a warning label to puberty blockers in America after biological girls developed swelling in the brain.

As we have noted repeatedly, public opinion is shifting on this issue, with more Americans saying that it’s morally wrong to change genders.

All of this just goes to show that Arkansas’ lawmakers were right to pass the SAFE Act in 2021.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.