Another day, another demonstration that the Cass report into puberty blockers was a political move, not a medical one.

As the epidemiologist and writer known as Health Nerd posted to Bluesky, “The BMJ journal Archive of Disease in Childhood has just published the epidemiological study done by York university that was commissioned as part of the Cass review into gender clinics in the UK. It contains some startling (and yet, unsurprising) revelations… this report undermines most if not all of the Cass review recommendations regarding clinical care.”

The study found that gender dysphoria diagnoses were incredibly uncommon; that a tiny proportion of those studied were prescribed any medication; and rates of prescribing were falling, not rising.

Elsewhere, solid criticisms of the Cass report continue to be published. This piece in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health describes it as the Brexit of health care and notes that “it is very unusual in the history of medicine that a time-honoured treatment, with a good safety record, even if based on non-randomised trials and experts’ opinion, is simply banned”.

You can find a very comprehensive collection of links to Cass-related studies and commentary on Ruth Pearce’s website here.