History of and evidence for puberty suppression as intervention for children experiencing gender dysphoria

Conference item

The talk tackles this contentious subject in three parts. The first traces the origins of this intervention back to the 1990s, when Dutch gender clinicians began experimenting with Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone agonist (GnRHa). The intervention was justified by the apparent success of a single patient. The talk then describes how this drug was introduced in 2010 by the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. The GIDS gave GnRHa to 44 adolescents but did not publish the results of this experiment. The speaker was the first to discover these results, and helped to force their disclosure. Although the study failed to replicate the positive findings of the Dutch, the NHS adopted GnRHa as a standard treatment for gender dysphoria from 2015 to 2024. The final part of the talk summarises the slender evidential basis for this intervention. Data on long-term outcomes are scarce. Puberty suppression is known to have detrimental consequences on bone density; less is known about the negative effects on cognition and on sexual function.

Authors: Biggs, M

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Journal: Medico-Legal Journal
• Acceptance date: 2025-10-13
• Event title: Meeting of the Medico-Legal Society
• Event location: London, UK and online
• Event start date: 2025-02-13
• Event end date: 2025-02-13
• EISSN: 2042-1834
• ISSN: 0025-8172
• Language: English
• Keywords: GnRHa; puberty blockers; transgender