Puberty blockers for those diagnosed for gender dysphoria have been banned in Northern Ireland for the foreseeable future.

The ban is in place across the UK for an indefinite time period.

The use of puberty blockers had already been suspended, with the British Health Secretary confirming the extension to the restrictions after experts warned of an “unacceptable safety risk”.

A clinical trial around the pharmaceuticals is being set up for next year.

On The Hard Shoulder, LGBTQIA+ activist and advocate Jude Copeland said there is a “sense of shock” in the LGBTQIA+ community in Northern Ireland.

“We really are dealing with a very small number of young people who are on this medication [in the North] – we’re actually talking about single digits,” he said.

“I think the actual chilling effect and the anti-trans rhetoric that it enable and promotes is having a really widespread impact on the mental and the physical wellbeing on not just trans people but people in the wider LGBTQIA+ community.

“It’s just a very difficult time to be such a tiny minority.”

Medications

The medications involved in puberty blockers are “actually given to people younger than young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria”, Mr Copeland said.

The medications are used to treat precocious puberty – which is puberty occurring at an unusually early age.

So, these medications will still be available, just not for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

“It’s a very odd policy decision,” Mr Copeland said.

The Cass Report

Independent Senator Ronan Mullen also joined the show, saying he believes this move follows the “very revealing and very clear statements” from the Cass report.

The Cass report, published in April, looked at gender identity services for under 18-year-olds in the National Health Service (NHS) in England.

The report found “shaky foundations” around evidence for medical treatment like prescribing hormones to pause puberty or to transition to the opposite sex.

“I think that the standout point for me would be that there isn't any long-term study that shows the safety or the efficacy of puberty blockers,” Senator Mullen said.

Mr Copeland said the Cass Report is an “outlier” in research around puberty blockers.

The Cass Report does not recommend against the use of puberty blockers.

"Massive warning light"

Senator Mullen said the Cass Report says the effect of puberty blockers on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown.

“Now that is a massive warning light, and should apply the precautionary principle,” he said.

“The big picture here is that we've gone from a situation where the cohort of people presenting with gender dysphoria in youth, went from a small number of people… to 400 now, young girls in particular, being influenced by this.

“What you're seeing now in Britain is the outworking of the Cass Report and the emerging consensus among people who care about young people with gender incongruence.

“When you consider like the idea that putting kids on puberty blockers is some kind of wait and see policy, when we know that the vast majority who go on to puberty blockers go straight onto cross sex hormones.

“If they do that in puberty, they end up sterile.”

Senator Mullen also claimed children diagnosed with gender dysphoria are being referred to the now-closed Tavistock clinic and Antwerp for treatment.

"The actual issues"

Mr Copeland said it’s “very easy” to take up airwaves talking about policy instead of “dealing with the actual issues”.

“We are allowing ourselves to be drawn in to conversations which really are very poor policy,” he said.

“You're talking about exporting people to Tavistock, exporting people to Antwerp - this is the rhetoric that we had with repeal.

“We take care of people where we are.

“I'm sitting in a charity in Belfast which deals with mental health issues of [sending people abroad for treatment].

“It's actually known as murder miles because of the trauma.

“We do not want to export our youngest, our most vulnerable people on the fringes of society.”

Mr Copeland said treatment for gender dysphoria is for “us to deal with” and to deal with “properly, compassionately and with all of the medical opinions that we have”.

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LGBTQIA+ Flag and Trans flag. Credit: The Canadian Press/Alamy Live News