Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he wants to get a trial into puberty blockers “up and running as soon as possible”.
Plans for one were announced in 2024 following the publication of the Cass Review which concluded the quality of studies claiming to show beneficial effects of such medication for children and young people with gender dysphoria was “poor”.
Puberty blockers are not prescribed on the NHS to children for the treatment of gender dysphoria, after a ban last year was made permanent in December with the agreement of devolved governments across the UK.
No patients have yet been recruited to the trial while ethical and regulatory approval is awaited.
Some organisations have said the trial should not take place at all, branding it “unethical and a breach of human-rights principles to treat young people’s mental distress with major, unproven physical interventions”.
In an interview with the PA news agency at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Mr Streeting responded when asked for an update on the trial: “We are currently working to get the trial on puberty blockers up and running.
“As you can imagine, in an area of medicine like this, it’s really important the trial is robust, is safe and effective.
“It’s currently going through the ethics approval process.
“I want to get the trial up and running as soon as possible, so that young people, and this particularly vulnerable group of young people, get access to safe and effective care with proper safeguards in place.”
Following the April Supreme Court ruling on biological sex, four campaigning organisations including Sex Matters and the LGB Alliance wrote to Mr Streeting and NHS England chief executive, Sir James Mackey, urging the trial plans to be cancelled.
They said: “We write to you as campaigners for human rights and ethical medicine to urge you to immediately cancel the planned trial of puberty blockers, which has been made untenable by the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers.”
They added: “We have always argued that it was unethical and a breach of human-rights principles to treat young people’s mental distress with major, unproven physical interventions with known harms (including to their adult sexual function and fertility), and to promise them that they could intrude on other people’s privacy, safety and dignity as well as put their own safeguarding at risk by using spaces for the opposite sex.”
The puberty blocker trial would 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.
It would be one part of a wider four-part so-called Pathways study, commissioned by the NHS and carried out by a team of researchers led by King’s College London.
Other parts of the study will involve tracking the physical and mental health and wellbeing of children, including those not on the puberty blocker trial, attending NHS gender clinics.
Researchers have said the overall studies could highlight differences among children with autism and ADHD, and potential differences among those seeking care based on their gender at birth.
The Cass Review recommended a more holistic approach to gender care, including screening for neurodevelopmental conditions, and mental health assessments.
