BMA U-turns on Cass Review opposition

The British Medical Association (BMA) has backtracked on its opposition to the Cass Review, but still rejects a ban on puberty-blocking drugs.

Following the union’s widely criticised rejection of Dr Hilary Cass’s landmark report in 2024, the organisation commissioned an evaluation of the work. The newly released BMA paper ‘Cass Review: Evidence, Interpretation, and Implementation’ has praised the report’s methodology and agreed to all of its recommendations.

Dr Cass, who led the independent review of gender identity services for children and young people, concluded in her report that giving trans drugs to children is based on “remarkably weak evidence”. She urged the NHS to review its use of cross-sex hormones and ensure that gender-confused children receive a holistic assessment of all their needs. But the report left open the possibility of drugs for whom it is “clinically indicated”.

Vindicated

The lead author of the paper, Professor David Strain, told The Times: “the baroness has been vindicated in the way she approached the data”.

He added: “She approached an area of significant uncertainty with that prime rule of medicine, of ‘first, do no harm’.”

However, the review group criticised the NHS’s implementation of the recommendations. It acknowledged the “known and plausible harms” of puberty blockers, but said a full ban was an “overreach”.

Harming children

In the US, the former president of LGBT activist group GLAAD admitted the group “got something really wrong” in advocating for the medicalisation of gender confused children.

Herndon Graddick led the controversial group between 2012 and 2013, and was hailed for expanding its work to include people who identified as transgender. In a recent podcast episode, he explained: “I just think that we should completely stop doing anything that might harm children”.

In the UK, trans-affirming treatment for gender-confused children, including the use of puberty blockers and new prescriptions for cross-sex hormones treatment, has been halted by the NHS.