The BMA has retracted its call for the UK government to lift the ban on prescribing puberty blockers to under 18s with gender dysphoria while the association conducts an evaluation of the Cass review’s recommendations.After pressure from members and from other doctors and clinicians the BMA has confirmed that it will now take a neutral position on the recommendations while it carries out its evaluation.The BMA called for the ban on the use of puberty blockers to be lifted on 31 July after the BMA council announced that it was setting up its own “task and finish” inquiry to “publicly critique” the review on gender identity services for young people chaired by Hilary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.1The BMA council motion described the methods underpinning Cass’s recommendations as “unsubstantiated” and “driven by unexplained study protocol deviations, ambiguous eligibility criteria, and the exclusion…
