A woman who was given puberty-blocking drugs when she was a girl has welcomed a High Court ruling which she said would protect children who are unsure of their genders.
Keira Bell was given drugs by the Tavistock Clinic before she was 16 to slow down her puberty and slow her transition to a female adult because she was convinced she wanted to be a boy.
But she later changed her mind and went through "detransitioning".
Keira, now 23, sought a judicial review against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the a Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), the only one in the country for children.
In their ruling three High Court judges - Dame Victoria Sharp, Lord Justice Lewis and Mrs Justice Lieven - said children aged 13 were “highly unlikely” to be able to give consent for treatment and it was "doubtful" 14- and 15-year-olds possessed the necessary maturity to understand the long-term risks of gender reassignment treatment.
Ms Bell, speaking outside the High Court, said: "This judgment is not political, it's about protecting vulnerable children. I'm delighted to see that common sense has prevailed."
The judges noted: "The central point made by the claimants is that although most of the physical consequences of taking puberty blockers may be reversible if such treatment is stopped, the child or young person will have missed a period, however long, of normal biological, psychological and social experience through adolescence, and that missed development and experience, during adolescence, can never be truly be recovered or ‘reversed’."
They also pointed out the NHS website had been updated in June 2020 to say: “Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria.”
It goes on to say: “Although the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) advises that is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be. It’s also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children’s bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations.”
The judges said: "A second key part of the argument about reversibility turns on the relationship between puberty blockers (PBs) and Cross-Sex Hormones (CSH) and the degree to which commencing PBs in practice puts a young person on a virtually inexorable path to taking CSH. CSH are to a very significant degree not reversible.”
They concluded: "It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers. It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers."