The pediatrician leading the NHS review into children’s services says the focus on puberty blockers in the gender-care debate is disproportionate.

Dr. Hilary Cass said that the merits of treatments used to delay the onset of puberty were “oversold” and that there was “very limited” evidence of their use.

He told BBC News that medical intervention should be offered to adults with long-standing trans identities, but that it was right to be wary of children questioning their gender, who were in a “dynamic state of development”.

It follows a ban earlier this year on routine prescriptions of puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria.

The ban, imposed in response to Dr Cass’s landmark review, was criticized by the British Medical Association (BMA) and campaigners took legal action against it.

The BMA, which has walked back its criticisms after a protest from doctors, called Dr Cass’s recommendations “unproven”.

And one of its senior leaders had claimed to ban puberty blocker Can cause “incredible harm” to trans people.

The review, commissioned by NHS England and published in April, called for better psychological support, noting that young people struggling with their gender have higher rates of mental-health problems and those with neurodiversity such as autism and ADHD or childhood trauma. Was.

On Wednesday, Dr Cass told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour programme: “They (puberty blockers) have been in the discussion a disproportionate amount, because the evidence really doesn’t show a benefit for the majority of young people who go on them.

“And in some sense, they’re sold among young people as something that’s going to make them feel dramatically better.”

Puberty blockers were prescribed to children by London’s Tavistock Clinic, which was the only NHS gender service for people under 18 but has now closed.

Dr Cass told Woman’s Hour that they had “very limited” evidence from which they could help.

They may be used for a small number of young people “but we don’t know who they are”.

“We don’t know whether the harms outweigh the benefits in other young people,” Dr Cass told the programme.

“If I were presenting another drug to give to kids with that kind of data, you would say, ‘No way.'”

Better evidence was needed, so the NHS was setting up a clinical trial into their use.

And medical and surgical interventions for children who changed genders required extra care, because they were in a “dynamic state of development”.

“We don’t know what path they’ll take in adulthood,” Dr. Cass told Woman’s Hour.

“If they go down the wrong path, the costs will be too heavy to bear in terms of medical intervention, when some of the effects are irreversible.”

But for adults with “permanent and long-standing trans identities”, the cost of medical intervention was “marginal” compared to “how difficult it would be to not be able to live in their identified gender”.

“For those people, it is absolutely critical that they get the medical intervention that they need and want,” Dr Cass told the programme.

He also said that the BMA’s objections were not “significant”, as NHS England was already moving forward with a new network of services emphasizing the provision of more holistic care to children and young people.

Earlier this year, the doctors’ union called for a halt to the implementation of the CAS review and the lifting of the ban on puberty blockers.

But later he said that he is going to neutral status after the reaction of the doctors.

The BMA is carrying out its own review of sexual services for children.

Dr Cass said he found the union’s position “disturbing” and urged them not to “sneak away” at the evidence.