The United Kingdom (U.K.) has prohibited private clinics from prescribing puberty blockers to minors.
The ban will last three months, from June 3 through September 3.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the U.K. Victoria Atkins said in a statement on X, “Today I have taken bold action to protect children following the Cass Review, using emergency powers to ban puberty blockers for new treatments of gender dysphoria from private clinics and for all purposes from overseas prescribers into Great Britain.”
“To further close the loopholes, I’ve also introduced restrictions for prescribing puberty blockers in NHS primary care in England,” she wrote.
In April, Dr. Hilary Cass, Chair of the Independent Review of gender identity services for children and young people, submitted a report to England’s National Health Service (NHS) regarding gender-related medical care for minors.
“There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media, and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behaviour. This must stop,” she wrote.
Discussing “gender care” for minors and young adults, Cass wrote there is “remarkably weak evidence” for transitions.
“This is an area of remarkably weak evidence, and yet results of studies are exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint,” Cass explained. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
Following the review, Scotland paused new prescriptions of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors.
“This service update follows research from NHS England and the publication of the Cass Review while we work with the Scottish Government to engage in research with NHS England that will generate evidence of safety and long-term impact for therapies,” a statement from Scotland’s National Health Service (NHS) said.