Cambridgeshire’s newly-elected Lib Dem MPs voice concern at health secretary’s stance on puberty blocker ban

Cambridgeshire’s newly-elected Liberal Democrat MPs have all voiced concerns over health secretary Wes Streeting’s plan to press ahead with a ban on puberty blockers.

Charlotte Cane, the MP for Ely and East Cambridgeshire, described the move as “worrying” and, writing on X, said: “Politicians should ensure proper funding for services for trans people and then let the patients and their doctors decide on the best treatments.”

Pippa Heylings, the South Cambridgeshire MP, said: “I’m concerned that Wes Streeting is considering making permanent the ban on puberty blockers. We must avoid politicising young people’s healthcare. Proper funding for health services for young trans people is needed and treatment decisions left between doctors and their patients.”

Victoria Atkins, Mr Streeting’s predecessor in the former Conservative government, used powers in the Medicines Act 1968 to stop private or European organisations from prescribing puberty blockers to young people aged under 18, if the drugs were for us in gender incongruence or gender-affirming healthcare.

The drugs suppress young people’s natural production of sex hormones to delay puberty.

Campaign group TransActual and a young person, who cannot be named, have launched a High Court bid to challenge the government’s order.

Mr Streeting is defending the order in the High Court and will consider making the emergency ban on puberty blockers permanent, subject to the outcome of the legal challenge.

The NHS does not prescribe puberty blockers to children because, it says, “there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness”.

Dr Hilary Cass, in an independent review of gender identity services published earlier this year, urged health authorities to set up a wide-ranging research programme which looks at different interventions for children and young people who are questioning their gender identity.

Her review found gender medicine was “an area of remarkably weak evidence”.

Dr Cass’ report referred to a systematic review by the University of York of 53 studies covering the masculinising/feminising hormones in adolescents with gender dysphoria. The review authors found all but one was of moderate or low quality and said: “No conclusions can be drawn about the effect on gender dysphoria, body satisfaction, psychosocial health, cognitive development, or fertility. Uncertainty remains about the outcomes for height/growth, cardiometabolic and bone health.”

Mr Streeting said: “(The) Cass Review found there is not enough evidence about the long-term impact of puberty blockers for gender incongruence to know whether they are safe or not, nor which children might benefit from them.

“The evidence should have been established before they were ever prescribed.

“The NHS took the decision to stop the routine use of puberty blockers for gender incongruence/dysphoria in children.

“They are establishing a clinical trial with NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) to ensure the effects of puberty blockers can be safely monitored and provide the evidence we need.”

Mr Streeting said clinicians can prescribe blockers to children who begin puberty too early because this has been “extensively tested”, and added: “This is different to stopping the normal surge of hormones that occur in puberty. This affects children’s psychological and brain development.

“We don’t yet know the risks of stopping pubertal hormones at this critical life stage.

“That is the basis upon which I am making decisions.

“I am treading cautiously in this area because the safety of children must come first.”

He added: “Some of the public statements being made are highly irresponsible and could put vulnerable young people at risk.

“I know there’s lots of fear and anxiety. I am determined to improve the quality of, and access to, care for trans people.”

But Ian Sollom, the Lib Dem MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, said: “I’m deeply concerned at news that Wes Streeting is considering making the ban on puberty blockers permanent.

“Sensitive healthcare decisions are profoundly personal and are best taken on an individual basis with appropriate professional support - not by the health secretary.”

Meanwhile, in the King’s Speech on Wednesday, the Labour government committed to a Conversion Practices Bill, banning conversion therapy, which aims to suppress or change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.