Gender identity clinics in England will no longer prescribe puberty blockers to children, England’s National Health Service confirmed Tuesday, marking a shift to a more holistic treatment approach for transgender youth.

Puberty blockers will now only be used during clinical research studies, but the less than 100 children that are already using them will be able to continue, the Independent reports.

European countries have increasingly shifted to a more hesitant and conservative approach to gender transitioning services for minors, with youth in Norway, Sweden, France, Denmark and Finland facing strict requirements to obtain puberty blockers, including only allowing them for research purposes. And while more than 20 states have banned or strictly regulated gender transitioning services such as cross sex hormones and puberty blockers in America, the open access to them still allowed in many states makes America somewhat of an outlier on the issue globally. 

The ban follows NHS England’s commissioning of a report into gender identity treatments for minors, the outlet notes. The review found a shocking jump of 5,000 referrals between 2021 and 2022 — up from 250 a year only a decade previously— to a nationally-run gender identity clinic out of London, the Gender Identity Development Service. 

That clinic will close this month, the Independent notes, and will be replaced with two new services that the NHS says will focus on a variety of treatments, resulting in a “holistic approach to care.”

Puberty blockers suppress sex hormones, including testosterone and estrogens. For males, puberty blockers slow or prevent facial hair, voice deepening, and limit the growth of male reproductive organs, the Mayo Clinic notes, and for females, they can block breast development and menstruation. 

The ban comes as a growing number of “detransitioners” have forced global conversation and pushback to the “affirmation only” approach when it comes to minors who are questioning their gender. As the Sun has reported, some doctors, parents, and detransitioners have been warned that just as minors can’t get a tattoo, children shouldn’t be given free rein to take puberty blockers or get other sex changes that they may regret later in life. 

Britain’s shortest serving prime minister who has been priming for a political comeback, Liz Truss, supported the decision on X.“I welcome NHS England’s decision to end the routine prescription of puberty blockers to children for gender dysphoria,” she wrote. “I urge the Government to back my Bill on Friday which will reinforce this in law and also prevent these drugs being supplied privately.”