Now Scots ‘pause’ the prescription of puberty blockers

PrEScrIbINg puberty blockers to children has been ‘paused’ in Scotland.

The move by NHS greater glasgow and clyde and NHS Lothian comes days after Dr Hilary cass’s review of gender identity services in England.

The health boards are the only two in Scotland to provide such services. Under the change, those already taking puberty blockers will continue to receive them but new patients will not.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil gray said yesterday: ‘We have been clear it is for clinicians and health boards to make decisions about clinical pathways, and that these decisions should be made carefully and based on the best evidence available.

‘This is what both health boards have done and their position is supported by the chief medical officer. More broadly, the cass review’s final report and findings are being closely considered by both the Scottish government and health boards, in the context of how such healthcare can be best delivered in Scotland.’

Dr cass’s review concluded that puberty blockers, which pause changes such as breast development or facial hair, had been prescribed despite ‘remarkably weak evidence’. It said children had been ‘caught in the middle’ of the ‘toxic’ trans debate.

The Scottish boards said they made the decision last month, after NHS England had banned the routine prescription of puberty blockers to children.

Maya Forstater, chief executive of charity Sex Matters, hopes the move ‘will be the beginning of a long- overdue winding back of NHS Scotland’s ideology-based approach to so-called gender medicine’.

A spokesman for the Scottish

‘Based on the best evidence’

Trans charity said the decision ‘will result in some young people being unable to access the care they need at all, or having to wait even longer for it’.

THE SNP yesterday ditched a key climate change target after experts warned it was ‘beyond credible’. Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan admitted that reducing emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 is ‘out of reach’.

but she insisted Scotland’s target to reach net zero by 2045 – five years earlier than the rest of the UK – will remain.