Call for national ban on ‘gender-affirmation’ interventions for young people

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A letter to the PM signed by more than 100 medical, legal, advocacy professionals, ‘detransitioners’ and politicians wants a public inquiry into youth gender medicine. See who signed.


Just hours after Queensland hit the pause button on hormone therapy for public patients under the age of 18 years, the issue has spilled into the national arena. 

A letter to prime minister Anthony Albanese organised by the Women’s Forum Australia dated 29 January and signed by more than 100 medical professionals such as doctors and psychiatrists, lawyers, politicians, advocates, academics and “detransitioners”, makes an “urgent call for public inquiry into youth gender medicine”. 

“We are writing as concerned citizens to call for an immediate public inquiry into youth gender medicine in Australia and a pause on all medical gender transitions for children and young people until this inquiry is complete,” the letter states. 

“Recent developments globally have exposed serious concerns about the ‘gender-affirming’ approach to treating gender-confused youth and there is now a bipartisan consensus in many countries that major changes to practice in this area are needed.” 

Signatories to the letter include suspended Queensland Health child psychiatrist Jillian Spencer, psychiatrists Andrew Amos, Associate Professor Peter Parry, Dr Alison Clayton, and Dr Jacqueline Condon; GPs, Dr Deirdre Little, Dr Catherine Peterson, Dr Joseph Turner, and Dr Danielle Collins; former PM Tony Abbott and  former Liberal candidate Katherine Deves; Charles Sturt University professor of public ethics Clive Hamilton; University of Melbourne professor Cordelia Fine; CEO of the Women’s Forum Australia Rachael Wong and her colleague, head of advocacy Stephanie Bastiaan. 

See all the signatories here, here, here and here.

“Medical interventions including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries can cause irreversible harm, including physiological damage (bone density loss, infertility, sexual dysfunction), issues concerning brain development and social and relational difficulties,” the letter reads. 

“While lifelong impacts are yet to be fully understood, regret is real, and a growing number of detransitioners believe their gender distress masked other comorbidities, including autism, untreated sexual trauma, and discomfort with their sexuality.” 

The letter quotes the UK’s Cass Review, released in April 2024, saying it “found no reliable evidence base for gender transition interventions in young people”. And “as a consequence, the National Health Service has halted the use of puberty blockers outside clinical trials”. 

The letter said that Australian politicians, clinicians and relevant institutions have been “slow to act”. 

“Worse, some have sought to undermine the significance of these developments and their direct relevance to Australia,” the authors write. 

“The Cass Review specifically evaluated Australia’s current treatment guidelines and gave them a pool rating for quality overall. These standards are based on guidelines from the now discredited World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).” 

The authors had a grim warning for the government if it did nothing. 

“This is a potential public health disaster of generational significance demanding an independent public inquiry,” they wrote. 

“Until an inquiry is complete, all ‘gender-affirmation’ interventions for children and young people (including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries) must be paused to prevent further harm.” 

The letter was also sent to opposition leader Peter Dutton, federal health minister Mark Butler, opposition health spokesperson Senator Anne Ruston and all state and territory health ministers and their opposition counterparts. 

The Queensland paediatric hormone therapy ban, announced on Monday by health minister Tim Nicholls, coincided with news that a wide-ranging investigation had been launched into paediatric gender health services provide at the Cairns Sexual Health Service. 

This investigation follows a preliminary review conducted by the Cairns and Hinterland Health and Hospital Service (CHHHS) in late 2024, after concerns were raised about apparently unauthorised paediatric gender services provided by the CSHS, adherence to treatment guidelines and clinical governance. 

Stage 1 hormone therapy (“puberty blockers”) and Stage 2 hormone therapy (“gender affirming hormones”) were being delivered in a way that may not have aligned with the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents or complied with standards for clinical documentation, the review found.  

Mr Nicholls said the Cairns issue as well as international evidence, had raised concerns about paediatric gender therapies across the state and prompted him to order the broader review of the evidence for hormone therapy treatment for children.  

“There is contested evidence surrounding the benefits of Stage 1 and Stage 2 hormone therapy for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria emerging from studies throughout the world,” he said. 

“Following the directive to the director-general of Queensland Health regarding the operation of the Cairns Sexual Health Service, I have also directed the director general to commission an independently led broad review of the evidence for Stage 1 and Stage 2 hormone therapies for children in Queensland.” 

While she was not a signatory on the letter, One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson added her support to the Queensland puberty blocker ban and said it should lead to a national ban. 

She said the ban had vindicated her party’s calls for an inquiry into the alarming increase in Australian children being treated with the drugs. 

“I congratulate the Queensland Government for heeding the increasing evidence of the risks these treatments pose to children and banning them,” Senator Hanson said.  

“Other governments in Australia need to follow suit immediately.” 

Ms Hanson said One Nation has “for years” been highlighting the risks and life-long consequences of treating children with puberty blockers and moving inquiries into the issue in the Senate without success. 

She said Labor, the Greens, crossbench senators Fatima Payman, Lidia Thorpe, David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell, and some Coalition senators have used their numbers to block these inquiries. 

“Their opposition to an inquiry is hypocritical to say the least. They claim they want to protect ‘trans’ children but they ignore the evidence of the harm these treatments are doing to these same kids,” said Senator Hanson. 

“They chant ‘trans rights are human rights’ as if children’s rights are not human rights too. Now that a government in Australia has banned puberty blockers for minors, they cannot ignore this evidence any longer. 

“The ‘gender affirmation’ approach to treating children as young as 12 with these dangerous drugs is obviously driven by political ideology, not clinical best practice. We must ban these treatments for children under 18 right across Australia.” 

TMR has contacted the Department of Health and Aged Care for comment. 

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