Wes Streeting is considering banning cross-sex hormones after two gender dysphoria experts warned there were severe health risks associated with prescribing the drugs to children.
The health secretary began “actively reviewing” whether the medication should continue to be prescribed to children under 18 after new evidence was presented from leading Finnish and Swedish clinicians, the New Statesman has revealed.
Cross-sex hormones are masculinising and feminising hormones that bring about largely irreversible changes, such as causing females to develop deeper voices and initiating breast growth in males, when prescribed to patients who identify as the opposite sex.
Last week it was disclosed in a High Court case that the government was reviewing the “next steps”, including potentially banning the prescription of the drugs to young people — similar to the ban on puberty blockers last year.
The disclosure came on Wednesday during an attempt to bring a judicial review, which was ultimately rejected by the court, against Streeting’s failure to ban cross-sex hormones for children at the same time that he banned puberty blockers.
Source: The Times, 27 May 2025
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