UK policy breaks from global medical expert consensus
Dr Helen Webberley on GB News: puberty blockers, with Lucy Johnston, GBNews
The UK's restrictions on puberty blockers for trans young people are a cautious, evidence-based response to genuine scientific uncertainty. The Cass Review is a rigorous piece of independent medical work, and the policy that followed it reflects the best available expert guidance.
What I was saying there is that the UK has placed itself in direct conflict with the international medical community. The Endocrine Society, WPATH, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organisation: these are not fringe voices, they are the bodies that set the standards for gender-affirming care across the world, and the UK has walked away from all of them. The Cass Review leaned on a small group of unnamed colleagues and systematically discounted the evidence produced by those global experts. That is not caution. That is a political decision dressed up as a clinical one, and the young people who needed care in the meantime have paid the price. I do think the UK will face serious legal challenge for this, and I think it will deserve to.
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