U.K. Medical Report Shows Glaring Problems With Subjecting Children to Puberty Blockers, Hormones, and Sex-Change Surgeries

Earlier this month Dr. Hilary Cass — a former president of the U.K.’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health — released her final report on how to improve National Health Services “gender identity services.”

In 2022 the NHS closed its Tavistock gender clinic after a government investigation revealed healthcare professionals had pressured families into subjecting their children to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones despite inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria and an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the “treatments.”

Now Dr. Cass’ 388-page report highlights glaring problems with giving children cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers and with subjecting children to sex-change surgeries.

A few of her key findings include:

• There is no simple explanation for the sudden increase in the numbers of children and teens — especially adolescent girls — who identify as transgender.
• There is a lack of reliable studies and evidence in favor of gender transition for children.
• Giving cross-sex hormones to children “presents many unknowns.”
• Doctors don’t know with any certainty if gender dysphoria in a child will continue into adulthood.
• For most children and young adults, sex-change procedures are not the best way to manage gender dysphoria.

The British Medical Journal summarized Dr. Cass’s report by saying, ” Without doubt, the advocacy and clinical practice for medical treatment of gender dysphoria [through puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery] had moved ahead of the evidence—a recipe for harm.”

The U.K. has already closed its Tavistock gender clinic and taken steps to protect children from cross-sex hormones. Other countries — like Sweden and Finland — have taken similar actions.

While European countries work to protect children from sex-change procedures, the United States still lags behind. Gender clinics in America still encourage children with gender dysphoria to follow a three-step transition process:

1. Social transition, where a child is treated like a member of the opposite sex.
2. Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
3. Sex-change surgery.

These procedures can leave children sterilized and scarred for life, and doctors don’t know the long-term consequences they may have for children. That is why to date about half the states in the U.S. have passed laws protecting children from sex-change surgeries.

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.

Over the past three years, reports from Europe and elsewhere have shown time and again that Arkansas was right to pass the SAFE Act.

Unfortunately, the SAFE Act has been tied up in court since 2021, and a federal judge in Little Rock has blocked the state from enforcing the law. However, the case has been appealed to the Eighth Circuit.

We believe our courts ultimately will recognize that the SAFE Act is a good law and uphold it as constitutional.

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