Extend child puberty blocker ban to sex change hormones, Wes Streeting told
January 2025 6:48am GMT
The Health Secretary is facing a court action to make him prohibit controversial sex change drugs for children, in line with an existing ban on puberty blockers.
Lawyers acting for victims of sex change drugs and their families are applying for a judicial review against Wes Streeting’s decision not to ban cross-sex hormones immediately.
The legal fight is led by Keira Bell, a de-transitioner who regretted trans surgery. She won a landmark case in 2020 against the Tavistock Clinic, where she was prescribed puberty blockers as a young teenager.
Last year, Dr Hilary Cass warned that cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers put children on a pathway that might “change the trajectory of psychosexual and gender identity development” and that there was “remarkably weak” evidence to support their use in children with gender dysphoria.
Following publication of the Cass Review, an emergency ban on puberty blockers was introduced by Victoria Atkins, the Conservative health secretary at the time, restricting their sale or supply to under-18s.
In December last year, Mr Streeting made the ban permanent, but did not extend it to cross-sex hormones.
The court action argues that sex change drugs issued to 16 to 18-year olds pose an “irreversible” and “unacceptable” risk to the health of thousands of vulnerable children suffering from gender dysphoria.