Name: It’s time for an inquiry into the doctors giving children puberty-blockers
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It’s time for an inquiry into the doctors giving children puberty-blockers

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When judges express surprise, it’s worth paying attention. The word “surprising” occurs several times in this week’s on children given hormone-blocking drugs and changing gender. This should prompt a much wider debate about the unanswered and often unasked questions underpinning the recent growth in the number of children being treated for gender issues.Many of those questions must be faced by the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. The only UK clinic treating “gender-variant” children, Gids was revealed in the judgment to have failed either to collect basic information about the growing number of children it treats or to investigate that remarkable growth.The Tavistock told the court it did not collate data on the ages of children treated with puberty-blocking drugs whose long-term consequences are unknown. Nor did it have data on the number of children receiving such drugs who went on to receive cross-sex hormones, which have irreparable and life-changing effects. When the court asked for Gids&nbsp;data on the percentage of its patients who are autistic – because in other countries, the comparable figure is between 10 and 26 per cent – the trust again said it did not have such information.Remarkably, Tavistock evidence to the court suggested the Gids&nbsp;team isn't even clear on why blockers are used: to give children “breathing space” and think about their gender? Or to address the distress that often accompanies adolescent issues over gender? Perhaps most striking of all, Gids&nbsp;“did not put forward any clinical explanation” of why in less than a decade its caseload has gone from being 50/50 boys and girls to 76 per cent female.Such failures of evidence and analysis were “surprising”, the judges wrote. The rest of us might find other, harsher words to describe a situation where an NHS clinic administers life-changing drugs to often vulnerable children on such a flimsy evidence base.The Tavistock team did begin a study to examine the experience and progress of children given blockers. It ran from 2011 until 2014, but still hasn’t been published. When the court asked for it, the Gids&nbsp;answer was that almost a decade after the study began, its data were still being reviewed.In recent years, a growing number of researchers, journalists, campaigners and parents have raised questions about the Gids&nbsp;approach. Several Tavistock staff have turned whistleblowers, too. The Tavistock,, dismissed those concerns, sometimes appearing to write off the doubters as zealots and bigots. The trust did commission an internal review of Gids&nbsp;by its own medical director, which found no significant problems. The Tavistock marked its own homework and gave itself an A-.Others are less impressed. Even as the Tavistock was vowing to contest the court ruling this week, NHS England “welcome[d] the clarity” the judges provided and ordered Gids&nbsp;immediately to stop offering blockers. NHS chiefs had already ordered an investigation into puberty blockers, but the institutions responsible for their use must surely now face rigorous external scrutiny too, either from Parliament or an independent review commissioned by government. This week’s judgment confirmed that there are many serious questions about children and gender – and about those responsible for their care. Now those questions must be answered.Related TopicsAdvertisementRelated TopicsWe rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism.We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.Thank you for your support.Need help?Visit ourpage.Close

When judges express surprise, it’s worth paying attention. The word “surprising” occurs several times in this week’s on children given hormone-blocking drugs and changing gender. This should prompt a much wider debate about the unanswered and often unasked questions underpinning the recent growth in the number of children being treated for gender issues.Many of those questions must be faced by the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. The only UK clinic treating “gender-variant” children, Gids was revealed in the judgment to have failed either to...

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James Kirkup

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It’s time for an inquiry into the doctors giving children puberty-blockers

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