Cass already stopped routine NHS puberty blockers for children. What remains is a research trial. Here is what the sponsor actually says.
King’s College London’s PATHWAYS TRIAL page is plain about the gap. There is not enough information about the possible benefits or risks of puberty-suppressing hormones for young people with gender incongruence. Doctors do not know whether any improvement in feelings comes from the drugs or from the other care those young people receive. There may be risks to brain and bone development. There is not enough research to know whether those changes happen, how large they are, or whether they reverse when treatment stops.
Because of that uncertainty, UK law says doctors can offer this treatment for gender incongruence only as part of a research study. PATHWAYS is a randomised trial: young people are placed by chance into a group that starts the drugs straight away, or a group that waits 12 months. The study is funded by the National Research Collaboration Programme — NHS England and NIHR — and led by King’s College London with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. MHRA and a Research Ethics Committee have checked it. KCL’s July 2026 Key Facts PDF sits on that same page.
A trial is how you find out. It is still an experiment on children. The progress is the ban on routine prescribing, not the research exception.
See also the February pause, the June protocol, and the High Court decision.
Primary source: King’s College London — PATHWAYS TRIAL
- united kingdom
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