The Cass report and the unforgivable puberty blockers scandal

Children who identify as transgender have been let down badly by an NHS that succumbed to an activist lobby.

That is the obvious conclusion to make after Dr Hilary Cass published her final report this morning as part of the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People.

In her report, Cass suggests that there is a serious lack of evidence about the long-term impact puberty blockers and other cross-sex hormones are having on children.

While the original rationale for puberty blockers was to give children ‘time to think’ about transitioning, the report dismantles this argument, pointing out that the ‘vast majority’ of children move from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones, and:

‘there is no evidence that puberty blockers buy time to think, and some concern that they may change the trajectory of psychosexual and gender identity development.’

Despite this, the report says researchers could find no evidence that puberty blockers improved children’s body dysmorphia or body image.

Cass concludes that most young people should not be going down the medical route if they have gender-related distress, adding that for young people ‘for whom a medical pathway is clinically indicated, it is not enough to provide this without also addressing wider mental health and/or psychosocially challenging problems such as family breakdown, barriers to participation in school life or social activities, bullying and minority stress.