Britain has launched two major studies as part of a longer research program to rigorously investigate the impact of puberty blockers in young people with gender dysphoria.
Puberty blockers were commonly used to treat precocious puberty, but were also used off-label in children.
However, England specifically announced that children with gender dysphoria would no longer be able to receive puberty blockers as part of their routine.
Researchers believed that new studies will help explore a broader “Pathways” program to analyze the impact of these drugs on people.
The Pathways Trial aims to recruit an estimated 226 young people over the next three years.
Participants will be randomized to start or delay puberty blockers, receiving a comprehensive package of care and support.
Throughout this process, well-being and development are closely monitored for 24 months, with each participant assessed individually in accordance with the clinical trials.
In this regard, the health director of the advocacy group TransActual, Chay Brown, said: “Worse, the fact that it is a randomized controlled trial, which means some young people will have to wait an extra year for puberty suppression, is not a neutral act.”
Britain is moving away from the conventional model of using puberty blockers while setting up a controlled research framework to access the treatments.
Furthermore, Emily Simonoff, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at King’s College London, said: “We could argue that puberty suppression should never have been available to young people outside of a clinical trial some ten to fifteen years ago, and that the most ethical thing would have been to do a trial at that time.”
