UK High Court clears puberty blocker trial for children

A clinical trial of puberty-blocking drugs for adolescents can proceed after a High Court judge dismissed a legal challenge on Friday, July 31, 2026. The ruling allows researchers at King's College London to begin recruiting approximately 226 children, aged 11 to 16, for the NHS-funded PATHWAYS study starting August 1.

Mr. Justice Chamberlain refused permission for a judicial review, concluding that the claimants' arguments had no realistic chance of success. He noted that each young person enrolled would have been assessed over many months by specialist doctors who believed the child had a reasonable prospect of clinical benefit from the treatment.

The legal challenge was brought by the Bayswater Support Group, representing parents of gender-questioning children, alongside campaigner James Esses and Keira Bell, a former patient who was prescribed puberty blockers as a teenager and later detransitioned. They argued that regulators, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Health Research Authority (HRA), acted unlawfully in approving the trial. Their objections centered on concerns about potential long-term harms to fertility, bone and brain...