An official British investigation has found that restrictions on prescription puberty-suppressing drugs have not led to an “explosive” increase in suicides among transgender young people, as transgender activists have claimed.
Reviewing Data
Britain's new health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, has commissioned a review of NHS suicide data in response to claims by the Good Law Project, an activist group “challenging the former health secretary's decision to stop private clinics prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to children and young people with gender dysphoria,” the BBC reported.
In a post on X, the Good Law Project claimed there has been a “surge” or “explosion” of suicides among current and former patients of Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust's Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) since the trust began cutting back on prescribing puberty-suppressing drugs following a High Court ruling in 2020. The claim, purportedly based on unpublished data provided by two Tavistock “whistleblowers,” including patients on the trust's waiting list, has been used to suggest that a nationwide ban on puberty-suppressing drugs would cause a surge in youth suicides.
Lewis Appleby, professor of psychiatry at the University of Manchester and an expert on suicide, reviewed NHS data from an internal Tavistock audit on current and former GIDS patients who died between 2018 and 2024. Mr Appleby found:
In this six-year period of data, there were a total of 12 suicides, six under 18 and six over 18. There were five suicides in the three years leading up to 2020-21 and seven in the three years following. This is essentially no difference and not statistically significant given the expected fluctuations in small numbers. Specifically, among those under 18, there were three suicides prior to 2020-21 and three after.
Next to the figures is a summary of the issues the young people who died faced, including mental illness, traumatic experiences, broken homes and being in care or child welfare services.
These figures certainly do not support the claim that there has been a sharp increase in suicides since the High Court ruling – there was one waiting list death before the ruling and 16 afterwards – but this information supports several factors that contribute to the suicide risk in this group.
Other psychiatric problems
Appleby is no cold-hearted accountant. His report is full of sympathy for both young people who suffer from gender dysphoria and those who take their own lives, especially. But he also criticizes activists, journalists and social media users who treat youth suicide as “a slogan or a way to win arguments.”
For example, Appleby points out that “although the evidence regarding suicide risk among gender dysphoric children and adolescents is generally limited, there is good reason to believe that they are at higher risk than other young people.” The way they are treated by others, other mental illnesses, and “high rates of autism” are “known risk factors, and suicide in any group is usually the result of a combination of multiple risks.”
Similarly, while “services offering non-stigmatizing support may contribute to reducing risk,” the evidence for 'gender-affirming care' in the form of puberty blockers is unreliable. Furthermore, he writes, “it is unfortunate that puberty blockers have come to be seen as a touchstone issue of acceptance or rejection. This perception needs to be challenged among patients, staff and the general public.”
Objective discussion is needed
He also called for a “sensitive public debate” on the issue. “The way this issue has been discussed on social media is insensitive, heartbreaking, dangerous and goes against guidelines on the safe reporting of suicide.” This could lead to gender-confused young people committing suicide, frightening children and their parents with the belief that suicide is “inevitable without puberty suppressants.”
“These young people need compassion and reassurance, skilled clinical assessments, early treatment for mental illnesses such as depression, support from family, school and online, and the expectation of recovery and a fulfilling future,” Appleby argues. “It is vital that these are assurances that the NHS and its partner agencies can convey.”
Unsurprisingly, the Good Law Project has disputed Appleby's findings, with its executive director Joe Maugham telling the BBC that “Freedom of Information requests for official data have been 'refused' and Tavistock and NHS England have declined to comment on the findings.”
But in a country that, thanks to the Cass inquiry, has rejected transgender ideas across all political stripes, Maugham's protests have been ignored. The health secretary who enacted the ban on puberty blockers is a Conservative; Streeting is a Labour member and his Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) supports the policy.
According to the BBC:
A Department of Health spokesman said decisions about children's healthcare must always be evidence-based.
“Dr Cath's research found there was insufficient evidence to show puberty suppressants were safe for under-18s, and the NHS has already stopped routinely prescribing them to children with gender dysphoria.”
“We are committed to ensuring that children who are questioning their gender receive the best possible multidisciplinary care, under the clinical guidance of specialists, which is why we are reforming our gender identity service.”
“It is vital that public debate on this issue is handled sensitively and responsibly.”
It'll be hard to convince the trans cult of that.
