A suicide prevention expert has discredited claims that banning puberty blockers led to a spike in suicides among children with gender dysphoria.
Professor Louis Appleby, who chairs the National Suicide Prevention advisory group, also warned against puberty blockers being used as the ‘touchstone issue’ in the debate.
He was commissioned by the health secretary to conduct an independent review of NHS data on suicide by young patients at a gender services facility.
After examining figures from the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust, Professor Appleby found that the data ‘do not support the claim that suicides have risen steeply’ since the High Court decision to restrict puberty blockers in December 2020.
These claims were made by the Good Law Group, a legal non-profit organisation which is supporting the transgender rights organisation TransActual to challenge a more recent puberty blocker ban at the High Court.
The comments were made on social media following news that health secretary Wes Streeting will ‘defend’ his predecessor’s ban on private prescribing of puberty blockers.
According to the review, the Good Law Project claimed that there had been an ‘explosion’ of suicides by patients at the Tavistock since the High Court decision in 2020, and this was said to be based on data from ‘whistleblowers’.
Professor Appleby concluded that the claims did ‘not meet basic standards for statistical evidence’ and also that the narrative on social media has been ‘insensitive, distressing and dangerous’.
He warned against inappropriate reporting of suicide, emphasising that this is an ‘important strand of suicide prevention’.
As well as discrediting the Good Law Project’s claims, Professor Appleby also made wider recommendations about caring for children and young people with gender dysphoria.
He said: ‘It is unfortunate that puberty-blocking drugs have come to be seen as the touchstone issue, the difference between acceptance and non-acceptance. We need to move away from this perception among patients, staff and the public.’
His review argued that these young people, who are ‘at risk of suicide’, need ‘compassion and security, skilled clinical assessment, early treatment for mental illnesses’ and ‘an expectation of recovery and fulfilling future’.
‘It is vital that these are the assurances the NHS and its partner agencies are able to convey,’ Professor Appleby added.
In response to the review, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said decisions about healthcare for children ‘must follow the evidence at all times’.
A spokesperson said: ‘We are committed to ensuring children questioning their gender receive the best possible multidisciplinary care, led by expert clinical guidance. That is why we are reforming gender identity services.
‘It is vital that the public discussion around this issue is handled sensitively and responsibly.’
The emergency ban on private prescribing, due to last until 3 September, was implemented following publication of the landmark Cass Review, which concluded that children and young people seeking NHS care for gender-related distress have been let down by the ‘remarkably weak evidence base’.
Before this, NHS England had banned routine prescription of puberty blockers on the NHS for children with gender dysphoria, after a working group found there is not sufficient evidence to support their ‘safety or clinical effectiveness’.
The misapprehension that a drug can immediately cure all and any problems permanently needs to be overthrown. These are complex psychosocial problems children are having, not a Strep throat, or even appendicitis. Holistic medicine needs to treat them as unique individuals, not just number sto generate a profit by selling drugs.