Trans advocates blast upcoming puberty blocker studies as unethical & biasedhttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/trans-advocates-blast-upcoming-puberty-blocker-studies-as-unethical-biased/ 🔗John Russell (20 Jan 2026)
Transgender rights advocates in the U.K. are blasting two recently announced research studies on the effects of puberty blockers on trans young people as unethical and biased.
In the wake of the widely criticized Cass Review and the U.K. government's subsequent decision to ban puberty blocking medication for the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors, National Health Service (NHS) researchers announced two studies on the drugs' effects on young people in November.
According to The Guardian, one of the two studies, the Pathways Trial, will randomly divide some 226 participants between the ages of 10 and 16 into two groups. One will receive puberty blocking medication immediately, while the second will receive the medication after a year. Participants' quality of life, emotional well-being, and physical development will be compared to those of a third group, which will not receive puberty blockers.
In a November 22 statement, Chay Brown, healthcare director for U.K. trans rights nonprofit TransActual, said that the study "is the result of an ideological view at the very top of the NHS that being trans is a 'less desirable outcome.'"
"It is unconscionable to coerce young people into participating and, for half of the cohort, delay the care they've been assessed as needing," Brown said. "It is and will be for a long time to come the only means that young people have of accessing puberty blockers through the NHS, and it is strictly capped at 226 regardless of how many would benefit from the care."
