Puberty blockers banned in Northern Ireland - 'Odd policy decision'
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Puberty blockers for those diagnosed for gender dysphoria have been banned in Northern Ireland for the foreseeable future.
The ban is in place across the UK for an indefinite time period.
The use of puberty blockers had already been suspended, with the British Health Secretary confirming the extension to the restrictions after experts warned of an “unacceptable safety risk”.
A clinical trial around the pharmaceuticals is being set up for next year.
On The Hard Shoulder, LGBTQIA+ activist and advocate Jude Copeland said there is a “sense of shock” in the LGBTQIA+ community in Northern Ireland.
“We really are dealing with a very small number of young people who are on this medication [in the North] - we’re actually talking about single digits,” he said.
“I think the actual chilling effect and the anti-trans rhetoric that it enable and promotes is having a really widespread impact on the mental and the physical wellbeing on not just trans people but people in the wider LGBTQIA+ community.
“It’s just a very difficult time to be such a tiny minority.”
The medications involved in puberty blockers are “actually given to people younger than young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria”, Mr Copeland said.
The medications are used to treat precocious puberty - which is puberty occurring at an unusually early age.
So, these medications will still be available, just not for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
“It’s a very odd policy decision,” Mr Copeland said.
Independent Senator Ronan Mullen also joined the show, saying he believes this move follows the “very revealing and very clear statements” from the Cass report.
The Cass report, published in April, looked at gender identity services for under 18-year-olds in the National Health Service (NHS) in England.
The report found “shaky foundations” around evidence for medical treatment like prescribing hormones to pause puberty or to transition to the opposite sex.
“I think that the standout point for me would be that there isn't any long-term study that shows the safety or the efficacy of puberty blockers,” Senator Mullen said.
Mr Copeland said the Cass Report is an “outlier” in research around puberty blockers.
The Cass Report does not recommend against the use of puberty blockers.
Senator Mullen said the Cass Report says the effect of puberty blockers on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown.
“Now that is a massive warning light, and should apply the precautionary principle,” he said.
“The big picture here is that we've gone from a situation where the cohort of people presenting with gender dysphoria in youth, went from a small number of people… to 400 now, young girls in particular, being influenced by this.
“What you're seeing now in Britain is the outworking of the Cass Report and the emerging consensus among people who care about young people with gender incongruence.
“When you consider like the idea that putting kids on puberty blockers is some kind of wait and see policy, when we know that the vast majority who go on to puberty blockers go straight onto cross sex hormones.
“If they do that in puberty, they end up sterile.”
Senator Mullen also claimed children diagnosed with gender dysphoria are being referred to the now-closed Tavistock clinic and Antwerp for treatment.
Mr Copeland said it’s “very easy” to take up airwaves talking about policy instead of “dealing with the actual issues”.
“We are allowing ourselves to be drawn in to conversations which really are very poor policy,” he said.
“You're talking about exporting people to Tavistock, exporting people to Antwerp - this is the rhetoric that we had with repeal.
“We take care of people where we are.
“I'm sitting in a charity in Belfast which deals with mental health issues of [sending people abroad for treatment].
“It's actually known as murder miles because of the trauma.
“We do not want to export our youngest, our most vulnerable people on the fringes of society.”
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There's nothing odd about this. What's odd is that this was ever up for debate
Exactly, worlds gone crazy
Indeed, withdrawing medical help from people should never be up for a debate.
@LeelooMinai who says blockers help, many who took them Regret there decision and feel let down and mislead
How is odd, its common sense, saying its odd is embarrassing.
Nothing odd about that, sensible decision
Yes and he said the cass report is an outlyer while sweden and the netherlands came to the same conclusion.Even if it was an outlyer its existence as an outlyer is an indication that there is no scientific consensus.
@@Joseph13163this is because of the differences between governments and who's paying who to write the reports. This treatment has the lowest regret rate of any medical intervention.the Cass report dismissed all positive scientific reports that were positive but accepted ones from far right anti trans groups in the US and the UK.
@@Joseph13163 That's true the Cass Review is a systematic peer-reviewed report considered to be the gold standard in scientific research on the topic.
Id say whoever wrote the headline is a bit odd
Exactly
Odd?????
The Cass report stands out on its own because it's one of the first reports that's not ideologically based but based on science
This is not an "odd" decision, it is the only sensible decision, what's been happening to young people getting these drugs in recent years is horrendous. The Cass review stands on its own because it is the first comprehensive study covering the use of puberty blockers in teenagers.
It is a totally biased report that has been shedded by the British Medical Association and is being investigated due to its non scientific based approach.
How is it horrendous? Have you asked a trans person how they feel about it? The Cass report didn't accept over 100 studies which were positive, only two that were negative.
How does it affect you?
@laurenburke2891 it's not about how it affects me, it's about how it affects the teenagers, who are completely incapable of making long term decisions (there's a reason they aren't allowed to vote, drive or get a tattoo), receiving life altering medications and surgeries. If you would like to hear the opinions of "trans" individuals, I would suggest listening to Chloe Cole doing interviews about her experience. I imagine your opinions would change swiftly. And before you make the argument, yes she is from Canada, but the process is the same in England and America and Ireland (though we outsource the worst of the problem abroad)
They too confussed to know how they feel, one min a man, dons a dress and things irs a woman and demands others agree ? @laurenburke2891
@laurenburke2891 yes it is horrendous !! They're children and change their mind, what they do in adulthood is up to them but shame on those parents who allow them to have them!
How is it an odd policy decision?
Precious puberty is only prescribed until the child reaches the appropriate age to reach puberty.
For blocking puberty it's a permanent drug, it's absolutely a different use case. It's absolutely true that he's not a doctor or a biologist, because if he did he would understand how unscientific that argument is.
I'm sure the Silent Majority of Parents would wish to thank Senator Mullen greatly for his work in highlighting ethical concerns of this issue
150 000 years of human evolution would disagree with this being odd
Let me correct that, “sane decision”. The fact that people advocate puberty blockers for children is absolutely horrific. Remember when they lied and stated that the effects were reversible? Disgusting
I have prescribed them many times and seen people come off them- the second you stop taking them normal puberty commences. (Almost never given for trans kids but same rules apply)
Every Paeds endocrinologist in the country prescribes them regularly, if it wasn’t super safe and effective and reversible we’d have stopped 30 years ago
It’s only when given to trans kids that suddenly people think biology works differently 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
@ not what I’ve seen
@@karenjeanmooney-kelleher8583
puberty "Blockers" even organised FgM awareness Ireland groups is heavily against puberty blockers. The HSE has a whole page/site dedicated to prevent child mutilation.
I believe, PBs further trigger the ideas and obsession with sełf hařm, ie... Leading to further Immense psychological damagê
The natural development of a child should not be altered in this way.
I'm so sick and tired of listening to this nonsense!!!!!
Ronan, you're onto it. Good man
Anybody else get the sense that the same people who see this as 'an odd policy decision' are the same people who chuckle and laugh and ridicule our ancestors who got caught up in the 'moving statues' phenomena in the 1980s, and they do so without a scintila of irony in their being ??
Hello? Based Department?
Allowing adults to make drastic decisions about their own body is the bare minimum.
Puberty blockers....adults have passed puberty, this is not about adults
@@crztank9298 Yes. PBs should only be used for their intended way, to delay puberty for those experiencing it too early rather than preventing it. Minors are not developed enough to make such major decisions and way too easily influenced. It being a necessity is not backed by science no matter how hard those supporting them pretend that they are science backed.
Not children do!
@@crztank9298Cass report is for ages up to 25. How come these medications are ok for other pre pubescent children and several.ofher conditions?
@@crztank9298you’re right. It’s child abuse plain and simple