Sale and supply of puberty blockers to be banned indefinitely

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has decided to enforce an ‘indefinite’ ban on the sale and supply of puberty blockers via private prescriptions for the treatment of gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria in under-18s in the UK. This decision follows official advice from the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), which found an “unacceptable safety risk” in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children. The CHM, tasked by the health secretary and Northern Ireland Minister for Health to evaluate the safety of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists for puberty suppression, issued eight recommendations. It advised that a statutory indefinite ban be placed on the use of puberty blockers until its three recommended structures are in place to support safe UK prescribing.