Full record
New NHS starts of puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones are paused on Scotland’s under-18 pathway. Existing patients already on those medicines were not cut off.
On 18 April 2024 NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde told patients that prescription of puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones to young people has been paused after NHS England’s findings and the Cass Review (the UK’s independent review of youth gender clinics). On clinical advice, NHSGGC and NHS Lothian had already deferred new starts in mid-March 2024. After Cass, and with the support of the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, the boards formally paused treatment. Existing patients already on those medicines were not cut off. Referrals into the Young People Gender Service continued.
The Scottish Government Cass implications report records that joint statement: both boards paused any new prescribing of puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones for under-18s. That goes further than NHS England’s then position on hormones.
The Sandyford young-person page (NHSGGC) still states that opposite-sex hormone treatment is not available to anyone under 18; Cass’s recommendation that puberty blockers be removed as a treatment option for under-18s was adopted in Scotland; existing patients on those drugs were unaffected; feminising/masculinising hormones are not available to under-18s in NHS Gender Services.
Chief Medical Officer letter SGHD/CMO(2025)9 (22 May 2025) repeats the 18 April board pause and notes that, with the later UK medicines order, the remaining route to puberty blockers for under-18 gender dysphoria is clinical research, unless treatment started before 3 June 2024.
That is a public-system restriction / pause. The UK-wide private-sale order is on the United Kingdom card. New NHS starts are not open.