Children as young as 11 could soon be recruited as the NHS resumes the Pathways puberty blocker trial despite continuing concerns over long-term risks!
In December 2025 we reported that a proposed ‘puberty blocker’ trial had been halted because use of such drugs pose unknown psychological and physiological side effects. However, in a devastating blow to parents and children, it has been reported that the trial will resume from this August and that children as young as 11 will be recruited to test these life altering drugs.
The ‘Pathways’ trial was originally set up after the 2024 landmark review by Hilary Cass into gender incongruence treatments for children. In her report she noted that there was very little evidence to support the use of ‘puberty blockers’ and more research was needed – hence the trial. The trial was then halted due to concerns from the MHRA about potential long-term side effects such as infertility and bone density loss.
It seems that the scientists running the study have addressed this problem by adjusting the study’s protocols to ensure that children and their families are aware of the damaging effects of taking these experimental drugs. Now, a new ‘protocol’ ensures that children are told that they may not be able to have children naturally, although they will be given the chance to freeze their gametes so that they might have a chance of conceiving via fertility treatments. The ‘protocol’ also gives a minimum age of 11 for girls and 12 for boys meaning that children just leaving primary school, or in the first year of secondary school, will qualify for the trial.
Kemi Badenoch attempted to use a ‘Health Bill’, which is currently at committee stage in the House of Commons, to try to halt the ‘puberty blocker’ trial:
She told The Telegraph:
“Children must never be used as test subjects due to pressure from trans-activists and bureaucrats.
“The Government should halt the Pathways trial immediately. We already know the evidence for puberty blockers is weak. Yet ministers are pressing ahead with an experimental trial involving vulnerable children.
“When institutions fail to protect them, politicians have a duty to step in.’’
However, the motion to halt the trial was voted down – 283 voted against the motion and just 121 voted for it.
The Pathways trial risks being a vehicle for gender ideologues to put into practice their sincle obsession that serves their ideology at the expense of any genuine care for children. It is an outrage that children’s bodies should be subjected to experimentation which serves no genuine medical benefits. It gives support to false idea of gender incongruence as a phenomenon which is grounded in reality, because people generally trust the NHS and profoundly believe that doctors and nurses act in their best interests. The trial will fuel the inaccurate and harmful narrative that says that children can be ‘transgender’ and that the correct way to deal with gender distress is to affirm their distress with gender affirmative care. Furthermore, it is unconscionable that children as young as 11 might be allowed to permanently alter their physiology and destroy their fertility because they are suffering from gender-based psychological distress.
Parents can’t protect children on their own – supporters of extremist gender ideology are to be found in prominent positions in our schools, the Civil Service, Trade Unions, our Parliament, and, worst of all, our National Health Service, as well as on social media and online forums, where one might expect to find them. Consequently, it is all too easy for children to be indoctrinated, especially if they have any additional vulnerabilities. And so, Ms Badenoch is absolutely right, the Government needs to step in and protect children from people who seek to do them harm. Ultimately, a puberty blocker trial is indeed harmful – giving children drugs to halt a natural process is not praiseworthy and it is not health care. Sometimes experimental treatment is necessary, and parents might willingly subject their children to such studies for good reason, but as we said in our earlier article, puberty is not a disease and should never be treated as such.
ParentPower Team
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