Charity told to rewrite guidance on puberty blockers

A charity supporting gender-questioning young people has been told to rewrite its guidance to be more accurate about the risks of puberty blockers, after a two-year Charity Commission investigation, which also concluded that there had been mismanagement within the organisation.

- Amelia Gentleman

However, the investigation found that the charity, Mermaids, had appropriate safeguarding policies in place and that there was no evidence that it provided medical advice to children, which would have been outside its remit.

It also ruled that the charity did not have inappropriate ties to private medical gender clinics, or to the now-closed gender service at the Tavistock, in North London.

Mermaids has been told by the Charity Commission that it must not resume a service providing chest binders to teenagers with gender dysphoria, without parental involvement.

The charity paused this service in 2022, after reports that the organisation was supplying binders to young people aged between 13 and 19 without their parents' knowledge.