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UK NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Dysphoria Research Oversight Board

In 2025, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) announced tightly controlled clinical trials for puberty blockers, to be managed by the Children and Young People’s Gender Dysphoria Research Oversight Board.

It was revealed in 2025 through an FOIA request that as part of their communications and engagement strategy (page 15), members were considering conferences by anti-trans groups “for possible clinician participation,” including:

Members

  • Chair – Professor Sir Simon Wessely (Non-Executive Director, NHS England)
  • Beth Scott, Deputy Director (Research Programmes), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
  • Baroness Dr Hilary Cass, Independent Advisor on Gender, DHSC
  • (TBC), Medical Research Council (MRC)
  • Professor Steve Turner, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)
  • Dr Camilla Kingdon, Chair of the Children and Young People’s Gender Services Provider Collaborative
  • Professor Peter Fonagy, National Clinical Advisor, Children’s Mental Health, NHS England
  • Professor Indi Banerjee and Dr Rachel Elvins; Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital
  • Dr Lindsay Neil, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
  • Dr Helen Griffiths, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
  • Dr Troy Tranah, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
  • Dr Bidisha Lahoti, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
  • Dr Julie Alderson, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust 
  • Stephen Tomlin, Consultant Pharmacist at Great Ormond Street Hospital
  • Dr Amy Dissanayake, Deputy Chief Medical Officer (Sussex) and NHS England National Specialty Advisor for Autism
  • Professor John Chester, Director of Research and Innovation, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
  • Professor Thomas Voit, Director of the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH) Biomedical Research Centre and Professor of Paediatrics at GOSH
  • Professor Grainne McAlonan, Professor of Translational Neuroscience and Interim Director, NIHR-Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)
  • Professor Stuart Logan, Director of South West Peninsula Applied Research Collaboration (PenARC)
  • Professor James Palmer, National Medical Director (Specialised Services), NHS England
  • Representation from individuals with lived experience (2)
  • Representation from a parent of individuals with lived experience (1)

PATHWAYS study

PATHWAYS is an acronym for Puberty suppression And Transitional Healthcare with Adaptive Youth Services. The PATHWAYS study “aims to find out how the NHS can best support children and young people with gender incongruence,” including how puberty blockers, or gonadotropin releasing hormone analogues (GnRHa) might be used. PATHWAYS has five components:

  • PATHWAYS Engagement advises the research team on how we study gender incongruence, including the questions asked and what the results mean. Young people with gender incongruence and their parents have already influenced the research ideas and now we will ask advisory groups to further guide the research team throughout the study. These groups will include young adults with experience of gender incongruence and parents of young people experiencing gender incongruence.
  • PATHWAYS Horizon will include all young people attending a UK NHS Gender Service who want to take part, and their parents. It will track young people’s physical, social and emotional well-being, and the care and support they receive over time.
  • PATHWAYS Trial focusses on the effects of GnRHa on young people’s physical, social and emotional well-being. It involves young people who want to delay puberty and whose parents and Gender Service agree with this treatment option. Everyone taking part will be followed for two years during the trial, with regular checks on their physical, social and emotional well-being.
  • PATHWAYS Connect studies whether using GnRHa affect young people’s thinking (cognition) and brain development. It includes all the young people in the PATHWAYS Trial and some of those in PATHWAYS Horizon. Young people’s learning will be measured with ‘paper and pencil’ tests/activities several times to chart how these change. Physical brain development will be studied at the same time with brain scans.
  • PATHWAYS Voices involves speaking to young people about their experiences of living with gender incongruence and of their care in NHS Gender Services including, for some, taking GnRHa. We will talk to young people and parents several times while they are attending the Gender Services. We will also find out from staff in the Gender Services about what they think helps. The study will be overseen by independent advisory groups and will be subject to rigorous ethical and regulatory checks by UK regulators and the NHS ethics committee.

Members

Resources

NHS (nhs.uk)

National Institute for Health and Care Research (nihr.ac.uk)