Baroness Cass added: “Access to the study will be through the new NHS children and young people’s gender services where a multi-disciplinary team approach will be taken to identify those children who, with the consent of their parents, may be deemed clinically suitable for consideration of puberty suppressing hormones through the study.
Professor James Palmer, who is the NHS national medical director for specialised services, said: “This suite of research will examine the evidence for a range of clinical care, including the use of puberty suppressing hormones, following advice from the Cass Review.
It will see young people, who have the agreement of their parents and NHS gender services, given puberty suppressing hormones (gonadotropin releasing hormone analogues or GnRHa) while having their physical, social and emotional well-being monitored across two years.
The ban sought to close a loophole on the sale and supply of puberty blockers through private prescriptions for under-18s after the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) published independent expert advice that there is “currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children”.
Puberty blockers are not prescribed on the NHS to children for the treatment of gender dysphoria, with a ban last year being made permanent in December with the agreement of devolved governments across the UK.
