Puberty Blockers

Danny Beales Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Owen]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and his kind words at the beginning; that is the right tone, which we need to set, and information is key. People need to be able to make informed decisions—whether it is the child or a parent—and there needs to be independent information so that people can make fully informed decisions.

[Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful and moving speech. Further to her point, does she not agree that the Opposition’s motion to prevent a clinical trial would not give people information, options and choices? It would cut down information, options and choices. She mentioned a constituent in her 80s who clearly did not grow out of her gender dysphoria, and this motion would close off lifesaving and life-changing treatment for the 7% of people who do not grow out of gender dysphoria.

[Sarah Owen]

I thank my hon. Friend for his powerful intervention; absolutely, information and scientific evidence are key, and this trial will be conducted by experts with patients’ best interests at heart. We have heard from the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson), and I am sure that, as a doctor, she cares about her patients as much as all the doctors and clinical specialists that will be involved in these trials.

Last year, the Women and Equalities Committee held a one-off inquiry into the safety and effectiveness of puberty blockers. We stuck to the science. There were different views on our panel of witnesses, but I wanted to demonstrate something that has, sadly, not happened very often around this topic, which was that we could discuss it in a sensitive, respectful way, based on fact, not opinion—not for social media clips or for likes on a particular outlet’s sidebar of shame, but for the good of the people we represent.

We also examined the use of puberty blockers for other medical purposes—something that has not been discussed today when talking about the risks, or perceived risks, of puberty blockers. It is commonplace to use puberty blockers for certain cancers, for endometriosis and for children experiencing premature sexual maturity, also known as precocious puberty. When it comes to cancers such as prostate cancer, the professors on the panel described the need to essentially “turn off” testosterone. This is now a commonplace treatment for prostate cancer.

Another use of puberty blockers is for endometriosis. We already know the disgraceful delays in diagnosis and treatment for endometriosis and adenomyosis, with women waiting at least 10 to 13 years just for a diagnosis. They are living in pain for far too long, but experts are using puberty blockers, again, to essentially “turn off” menstruation and oestrogen for women with severe endometriosis.

--- Later in debate ---

[Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield) (Con)]

The reason I am in the Chamber today is the protection of children—that is why I care about banning social media, and it is why I am here to speak about puberty blockers. We protect young people under the age of consent from alcohol, heroin and sexual abuse, because they are children under the age of 18. This puberty blockers trial for 11-year-olds makes me ask whether we are putting sufficient safeguards in place for those young people, and whether they have the cognitive ability to understand what they are doing. Do they have the cognitive development to understand that, when their brain is fully developed, they will have made an irreversible choice, one that will last for the rest of their lives?

We talk about these children giving consent. What about a class action lawsuit? Members have referred to 7% of people being happy to continue with the therapy. What will happen when these children are 18 or 25? Inevitably, a percentage will decide that they do not want to continue in the gender they chose as a child and want to go back to the gender they were before. What are they going to do? Are they going to sue the Government? Are they going to sue the clinicians for conducting the trial, because they were forced and coerced into something that they did not fully understand?

[Danny Beales]

I thank the hon. Member, my constituency neighbour, for giving way on that point. There is a lot of “what about” in her remarks; will she reflect on Dr Hilary Cass’s comments that the trial will lead to less harm than would otherwise be the case? Why does she believe that Dr Cass is saying that? Does she doubt her expertise in this instance?

[Joy Morrissey]

My doubts come from why, for example, we are not allowing the data linkage study to be fully completed before proceeding with the new trial. That study would find out what has happened to all the children who have already taken puberty blockers. I wanted to ask the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett), that question, but I was not able to make that intervention; I do not know whether that had anything to do with the £1.5 million donation from Ferring Pharmaceuticals that the Lib Dems took before the 2019 election. I do not know whether that had anything to do with it, but there has to be some level of declaration if a political party has taken donations from a pharmaceutical company that is promoting this drug. That is relevant to how one represents oneself in the Chamber.

There is no justification for proceeding with the Pathways trial before the data linkage study is complete. Puberty is how a child transitions from childhood to adulthood, and anything that affects that process is going to have long-term effects. Those effects are going to be felt, not in one or two years, but in 10 years. The brains we have as adults, at the age of 24, are very different from the brains we have as 11-year-olds—our frontal cortexes are not fully developed. This is not just about the effect on these children’s psychology; what effects do these drugs have on humans over the long term? We do not know that, so why not look at the data linkage study? It does not have to be perfect, but it will allow us to protect the children going into this trial, so that the trial is as well-run as possible.