LEADING ARTICLEThe Times view on treating gender with drugs: Quack Medicine
The NHS is right to ban the routine prescription of puberty blockers. Young lives have been damaged by this potentially life-changing treatment for gender dysphoria
The Times Leading ArticlesWednesday March 13 2024, 9.00pm, The Times
The Tavistock Centre’s gender identity clinic routinely prescribed the drugs to its young patientsPETER NICHOLLS/REUTERSIn the western world at least, it is normal for new treatments to undergo rigorous testing before being accepted into mainstream medicine. Often, the complaint from those who might benefit from therapies is that approval takes too long. This excess of caution may be frustrating for those who need help but far worse would be a system in which patients became guinea pigs in unregulated mass experiments with potentially life-altering and irremediable consequences. Such is the case with puberty blockers which for years have been fed to children in this country who are confused about their identity and sexuality. The use of these substances to impede physical development in youngsters who question their gender, despite an absence of sound scientific understanding of the long-term effects,
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