Chief executive officer of Women’s Forum Australia Rachael Wong, backed by 100 doctors, legal and ethical experts, and politicians, has intensified her call for a national pause on youth “gender-affirmation” treatments pending the outcome of an independent public inquiry.
A 29 January letter sent to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the matter and signed by 100 child psychiatrists, “detransitioners,” researchers and others outlined their concerns about the possibility of “irreversible harm” from treatments such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and teenagers.
The same concerns led in the UK to a ban on the use of puberty blockers outside of clinical trials, and restrictions or bans in other jurisdictions as well.
Wong says the group’s joint call for an inquiry and a similar pause on medical gender transitions for Australian children and young people was not sufficiently answered by subsequent announcement of a Federal Government review into youth gender treatment guidelines.
On 31 January Health Minister Mark Butler said he had asked the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to undertake a “comprehensive” review of the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents in Australia, and to develop new national guidelines.
Interim advice on the use of puberty blockers is due mid-2026, he said. The Catholic Weekly had no reply to a request for comment from Minister Butler at the time of going to print.
“The review is a positive step forward given the previous unwillingness of the Minister to do anything on this issue,” Wong told The Catholic Weekly.
“If the NHMRC follows its own rigorous standards, we might actually see genuine improvement in care for gender distressed children and young people.
“However, the government’s praise of the current flawed guidelines and confirmation that the review is being driven by activist groups like AusPATH, raise grave concerns about whether the review will be independent, which was a critical element of our request for an inquiry.
“If the review’s independence is compromised, it is effectively worthless.”
Wong also said it was “unacceptable” there seemed no plan to pause gender interventions while the review is underway.
“Why should vulnerable children and young people continue to be subject to this medical abuse when evidence from around the world clearly shows a lack of benefit and significant risk of serious harm?”
Liberal MP Damien Tudehope welcomed news of the review but said two years to wait for a report is “absolutely too long” when there are gender treatments provided in at least three public institutions in New South Wales alone.
“There should be an immediate pause in relation to providing the puberty blocker medication which is currently being administered to potentially 14-year-olds, which can have long-lasting effects, and where there is certainly no clarity in relation to what constitutes proper consent in relation to this treatment,” he added.
He also called for a public inquiry, rather than an internal review.
“I think the public expects that there would be a public inquiry in relation to the manner in which these drugs are being administered, so that we ensure that all evidence is made available to anybody who’s conducting that and certainly for the legislators, to ensure that they have all the information available to them at the time that they make a decision,” he said.
Last month Queensland announced its own independent inquiry into puberty blockers or hormone treatments for children and teenagers, with an immediate pause on such therapies for public patients under the age of 18.
That inquiry comes in response to problems with the Cairns Sexual Health Service provision of paediatric gender therapies along with “international evidence and recent policy decisions,” said Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls.
Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Queensland, Patrick Parkinson said if the NHMRC adopts its normal standards of “careful research, assessment and rigour” then the Federal review will have “very beneficial outcomes and it is most unlikely that the current praxis in gender clinics across the country could survive.”
“Almost every single systematic review has reached the same conclusion that the evidence of benefit of these treatments for children and young people is weak, even in reducing gender dysphoria,” he said.
“So given the significant harms, there is a question as to whether it can possibly be said that the benefits outweigh the costs.
“It’s possible that these treatments could be beneficial for a small number of children and young people.”
The difficulty is that it is hard to identify them amongst all the others who present to gender clinics wanting these medications.”
The letter, which is also signed by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, is now open for public signatories as Wong says the Federal government’s approach “only re-confirms the need for a truly independent national inquiry and a halt on all gender interventions until this is complete.”
An earlier version of this article incorrectly displayed an image of Senator Penny Wong instead of Rachael Wong.
