B

Baroness Cass (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 25 June 2026

Debate

Puberty Blockers Trial: Consent

Contribution

My Lords, I have spoken to my clinical colleagues about the issue of age at enrolment and they expect enrolment at 11 or 12 to be vanishingly rare. However, I ask noble Lords to consider the case of a child I will call Jo, who was a biological male socially transitioned at two and a half by his parents. At 11, she—I say this advisedly, because the chances of her reverting to her biological gender are vanishingly remote—has been in stealth and will not go to secondary school because she is so afraid of being outed in that environment. She is now refusing to come out of her room except very rarely and has weak bones, not as a result of puberty blockers but through inactivity. Should her subsequent treatment be decided by politicians or by the clinicians looking after her?

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