Health secretary Wes Streeting announced last week that his department’s emergency ban on the issuing of puberty suppressing hormones through private prescriptions is to be made “indefinite”.

The emergency measures, which were first issued under the previous Conservative government, outlawed the use of puberty blockers to treat gender incongruence and/or dysphoria in private healthcare after NHS England adopted new guidance ending the routine prescription of these drugs through the health service. 

“Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led,” commented Mr Streeting, who said the current guidance presents an “unacceptable safety risk” for young people with gender dysphoria. 

The ban is to be reviewed in 2027, the Department of Health and Social Care said. NHS patients already receiving these medicines for gender dysphoria or other diagnosed conditions will still be able to access them.

“We are working with NHS England to open up new gender identity services so people can access holistic health and wellbeing support,” he said, adding that a clinical trial looking into the use of puberty blockers will take place in 2025 “to establish a clear evidence base for the use of this medicine”. 

Dr Hilary Cass, whose landmark independent review into gender identity services for children earlier in the year revealed concerns around the use of these drugs, said: “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. 

“I support the government’s decision to continue restrictions on the dispensing of puberty blockers outside the NHS where these essential safeguards are not being provided.”