Trans blogger Erin Reed and Gender specialist Dr Helen Webberley are both blogging after a Dutch report confirmed what many trans people already know - that gender affirmative care is of benefit and saves lives.

The Health Council of the Netherlands – the nation’s foremost scientific advisory body – has concluded that gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender minors is lawful, effective and beneficial. After a two-year systematic review chaired by a professor of research methodology, the panel found no recorded cases of regret among Dutch patients who began treatment as children. The council warned that refusing care is not a neutral position and described reducing waiting lists as a moral duty.

The review examined the available scientific literature, consulted external experts and even heard from Dr Hilary Cass, whose own report on gender services in England the Dutch council judged not applicable to the Netherlands. According to the findings, the care achieves its intended physical results and leads to improved mental health outcomes. Among those who started treatment as minors, the rate of discontinuing puberty blockers sits between zero and 3.5 per cent, with no cases of later regret found in any of the studies examined. Where individuals did stop taking blockers, the most common explanation was that their gender dysphoria had resolved – precisely what the treatment is designed to allow: time for exploration without irreversible physical changes forcing a decision.

Delay Carries Its Own Costs

The council explicitly rejected the idea that simply waiting is a safe alternative. “Non-treatment is therefore not a neutral option,” the report states. “In the public debate, treating is often presented as intervening, while waiting is treated as self-evident.” The advisory body detailed what prolonged delay actually imposes on young people: unwanted and frequently permanent bodily changes, worsening mental health, and a turn towards unregulated hormones when proper care is inaccessible. It described reducing waiting times as “morally urgent.”

The mental health evidence followed the same pattern. Trans young people report poorer psychological wellbeing than their cisgender peers before any treatment. After beginning puberty blockers, they show fewer emotional difficulties, lower rates of depression, and reduced suicidality and self-harm. The council also highlighted what untreated dysphoria robs from a young person’s life: fewer opportunities to form an identity, develop talents, and plan for the future. It termed this a harm to “the right to an open future” – a framing that underscores the active consequences of inaction.