SNP MP Joanna Cherry calls for puberty blockers to be banned in Scotland in wake of Cass Review on gender

The claims have been made in a letter by Joanna Cherry and Robin Harper in the wake of the Cass Review findings

A prominent SNP MP has called for the use of puberty blockers to be banned in Scotland and for an overhaul of gender services for children north of the Border in the wake of a major review.

Joanna Cherry, the MP for Edinburgh South West, has written to Scotland’s chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith calling for the urgent re-design of services for gender questioning children in Scotland.

The letter has been jointly signed by former Scottish Greens co-convener Robin Harper.

Joanna Cherry attends the memorial service of Alistair Darling at Edinburgh's St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in December. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

It comes after the Scottish Government pledged to “take the time to consider the findings” of the Cass Review published on Wednesday, which said children had been let down by a lack of research and evidence on the use of puberty blockers and hormones.

Ms Cherry, a critic of Scotland's previous gender recognition reform plans, said: “Gender questioning young people in Scotland deserve individualised care. As the Cass Review notes, this should include screening for neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder, and a mental health assessment. The prescription of puberty blockers places gender questioning children and young people on a medicalised pathway which has life-long implications. The NHS in Scotland has been slow to react to emerging evidence of the harm of these practices and all too often relies on international best practice as a catch all to avoid difficult conversations.”

Ms Cherry added: “The publication of the Cass Review should be an urgent wake-up call that services for children and young people must be urgently re-designed and puberty blockers removed from use in Scotland.”

A letter had previously been submitted by Ms Cherry to Professor Jason Leitch in August 2022 calling on NHS Scotland to take immediate action after highlighting the findings of the interim Cass review at at the time.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The CMO has received the letter, and a reply will be issued in due course.

“Scottish Government has been consistently clear that the Cass review’s final report and findings will be closely considered by both the Scottish Government and Health Boards, in the context of how such healthcare can be best delivered in Scotland.

“Scottish Government agrees with Dr Hilary Cass when she highlights that ‘increasingly toxic, ideological and polarised public debate’ does nothing to serve the young people accessing this care, their families and the NHS staff working hard to care for them.”

A puberty blockers ban in Scotland has been previously branded unlikely by trans charities due to the “exceptionally difficult” process patients must go through to acquire gender identity treatment through NHS Scotland.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting meanwhile said findings that children’s gender care in the NHS had been based on weak evidence were “scandalous” as he spoke of his anger over adult gender clinics refusing to take part in research.

Research by the University of York, carried out alongside the report, found evidence to be severely lacking on the impact of puberty blockers and hormone treatments, while the majority of clinical guidelines were found not to have followed international standards.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the findings “shine a spotlight” on the need to “exercise extreme caution” when it comes to gender care for children.

The report, first commissioned in 2020, concluded that gender care was an area of “remarkably weak evidence” and young people have been caught up in a “stormy social discourse”.

Asked about Dr Hilary Cass’s report, Mr Streeting told The Sun’s Never Mind the Ballots show: “I think she’s done a really important piece of work, but I think it does raise some serious concerns that are pretty scandalous.” He pledged that a Labour government would take an “evidence-led approach to this” area of healthcare in future.