More patients on puberty blockers saw their distress deteriorate than improve.

Mental health   Pre-teens   Puberty blockers   Teenagers  

A study1 of children from 12-15 receiving puberty blockers via the Gender Identity and Development Service showed that 37-70% of patients showed no improvement in levels of distress. 15-34% showed deterioration, while only 9-29% showed improvement. 

The highest rate of deterioration (34%) was recorded at the 12 month evaluation, when the sample size was at its largest. Evaluations at 24 and 36 months were affected by significant loss to follow-up, which compromises the data.

  1. McPherson, S., & Freedman, D. E. P. (2023). Psychological Outcomes of 12–15-Year-Olds with Gender Dysphoria Receiving Pubertal Suppression in the UK: Assessing Reliable and Clinically Significant Change. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 50(3), 315–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2023.2281986 ↩︎
Download as PDF