Health Secretary 'uneasy' over puberty blockers experiment on kids as MPs raise alarm over lack of support available to patients who detransition

By SHAUN WOOLLER, EXECUTIVE HEALTH EDITOR Published: 19:07, 8 July 2026 | Updated: 19:09, 8 July 2026 The health secretary has admitted he remains ‘uneasy’ about a controversial NHS puberty blockers trial as MPs criticised the limited support available to patients who detransition. James Murray told Parliament there was a ‘lack of clinical evidence’ on the risks and benefits of the drugs but said the trial should proceed ‘carefully’ under intense scrutiny. He was quizzed by Tory MP Joe Robertson, who asked whether it could be ‘morally or ethically right’ to give ‘powerful drugs to physically healthy children’ because there was a lack of evidence. Mr Murray replied that he found the issue ‘difficult’ and ‘uncomfortable’, adding: ‘I felt myself uneasy in considering this matter.’ But he insisted ministers had to follow clinical advice and said he had sought ‘the absolute highest level of reassurance’ over safeguards before backing the trial for kids as young as 11. Addressing the Commons health and social care committee, the minister said the protocol included ‘automatic triggers for withdrawing young people from the trial’ as well as monitoring and clinical interventions. He added ‘Although I still remain uneasy, proceeding carefully with a high, extremely high degree of scrutiny is the way to get that evidence.’ Some 226 kids are due to be given drugs to stop their body’s natural development as part of a trial commissioned by former health secretary Wes Streeting. James Murray told Parliament there was a ‘lack of clinical evidence’ on the risks and benefits of the drugs but said the trial should proceed ‘carefully’ under intense scrutiny. He had indefinitely banned the drugs after the Commission on Human Medicines said they posed ‘an unacceptable safety risk’. But he backed the Pathways trial into their side-effects, as recommended by the Cass review into the treatment of children who think they are trans. Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, told the Daily Mail: ‘James Murray is not the first Labour health secretary to express unease about harming physically healthy children by subjecting them to a clinical trial in the name of gathering “evidence", when plenty is already known about the serious risks and dubious benefits of puberty blockers. ‘Mr Murray should differentiate himself from his predecessor Wes Streeting by listening to his conscience – and to an increasing number of concerned medics and a large majority of the British public, who regard this trial as outrageous. ‘He needs to call a halt to what will, if it is allowed to proceed, be remembered as a shameful episode in the history of medicine.’ In a separate exchange during today’s Committee, Tory MP Gregory Stafford raised concerns about people who detransition or desist from a trans identity. Mr Stafford said they were a ‘clearly very marginalised group’ and pointed out that the Cass review had called for ‘dedicated follow-up and support’ for those who detransition. He said that two years later there was still ‘no nationally commissioned NHS detransition pathway’. Furious campaigners will now urge the courts to shut down the 'unethical experiment' by launching a judicial review. Mr Murray declined to give a detailed answer but said he would respond in writing. Mr Stafford also highlighted the case of a 23-year-old detransitioner with autism and complex needs who, he said, underwent major NHS surgery despite failing ‘half of the capacity tests’. Sir Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS England, asked for details of the case so he could look into it. Puberty blockers are hormone-suppressing drugs that pause the physical changes which mark a transition towards adulthood, such as facial hair and periods. The trial, led by King’s College London, has faced criticism surrounding the ethics of giving children a drug that could cause irreversible harm, including to their brains and fertility. The Cass Review recommended the trial after concluding that the quality of research claiming to show the benefits of puberty blockers for youngsters with gender dysphoria was ‘poor’. Transgender children as young as 11 will be able to join after regulators watered down their objections. The launch was dramatically halted in February when the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency expressed safety concerns and indicated it wanted to restrict the trial to kids aged 14 and over. Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, said puberty blockers are no solution to childhood gender distress. But researchers revealed last month that they will resume recruitment from August 1 after officials agreed to the lower age threshold. Furious campaigners will now urge the courts to shut down the 'unethical experiment' by launching a judicial review. Campaigners, who want the trial axed completely amid concerns young people could be harmed, said the MHRA appears to have caved in to ‘gender ideology’. Harry Potter author JK Rowling is among public figures to have expressed their opposition to the trial, with the writer describing it as ‘an unethical experiment on children who can’t give meaningful consent’. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has also said her party will try to ban the trial by seeking to amend the Health Bill that is currently passing through Parliament.