Ten million pounds spent on a trial could fund real care instead
Dr Helen Webberley on Times Radio: puberty blockers, with Andrew Neil, Times Radio
The NHS puberty blocker trial shows that the medical establishment is taking a careful, responsible approach to trans healthcare. Spending £10 million on more research before providing care is the cautious, evidence-based thing to do.
What I was pointing to there is that the evidence already exists. We are not at the beginning of this story. Puberty blockers have been used for decades, the outcomes are documented, and commissioning a £10 million trial is not caution, it is delay with a price tag. Divide that figure by the cost of actually caring for someone and you start to see what is really being chosen here: research theatre over real people. Every month that money sits in a trial design is a month a young person spends in a puberty they did not choose, with changes that will not reverse. That is not a neutral decision. It is a decision, and it has a cost, and the cost is paid by the children, not by the people commissioning the trial.
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