£10m funding for children’s gender research including NHS puberty blocker trial

Over £10 million of NHS funding has been allocated for new research into gender care for children, including the use of puberty blockers.

Plans for the trial were introduced last year following the Cass Review, which determined that studies claiming beneficial effects of such medication for children and young people with gender dysphoria were of “poor” quality.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has confirmed an NHS-commissioned study to run until 2031. King’s College London will lead the research, funded by a contract worth £10,694,902.24, according to ‘Independent’.

Baroness Hilary Cass, who authored the 2024 report, stated that the research aims to “fill some of the gaps in our knowledge about the outcomes of different interventions and address some of the uncertainty about the impacts and efficacy of puberty suppressing hormones.”

The trial on puberty blockers is part of the extensive four-part Pathways study. It will involve providing young people, with parental and NHS gender services’ consent, puberty suppressing hormones (GnRHa), while monitoring their physical, social, and emotional well-being over two years.

Other study components will track the well-being of children attending NHS gender clinics, including those not participating in the puberty blocker trial. The research will also assess whether puberty blockers impact young people’s cognitive function and brain development using activities and brain scans.

Researchers will gather perspectives from young people on their experiences with gender incongruence and care, as well as feedback from parents and staff.

Although the first trial participants were expected to be recruited this spring, the NHS indicates recruitment is pending strict ethical and regulatory approval.

Professor James Palmer, NHS national medical director for specialised services, said: “This suite of research will examine the evidence for a range of clinical care, including the use of puberty suppressing hormones, following advice from the Cass Review. Independent researchers led by King’s College London will now progress this joint NHS and NIHR project, which will be subject to strict ethical and regulatory approval and follow stringent safeguards in scientific research. In the meantime, the NHS continues to expand and improve services for children and young people with gender dysphoria and incongruence, in line with recommendations from the Cass Review.”

Baroness Cass emphasised: “Access to the study will be through the new NHS children and young people’s gender services where a multi-disciplinary team approach will be taken to identify those children who, with the consent of their parents, may be deemed clinically suitable for consideration of puberty suppressing hormones through the study. The children participating in the study will also continue to receive comprehensive psychosocial support.”

Puberty blockers are not prescribed by the NHS to children for treating gender dysphoria, with a ban, made permanent last December, agreed upon by devolved governments across the UK. This ban closed a loophole allowing the sale and supply of puberty blockers through private prescriptions for under-18s, following independent expert advice from the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) citing “an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children.”