Des Houghton: Dr calls for suspended psychiatrist Jillian Spencer to be reinstated

A fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists has called on Queensland Health to reinstate a suspended psychiatrist, saying she was the target of a political campaign by gender activists.

Suspended Queensland Health psychiatrist Jillian Spencer.

A fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists has called on Queensland Health to reinstate suspended psychiatrist Jillian Spencer, saying she was the target of a political campaign by gender activists.

Dr Andrew Amos also described transgender studies in schools as “absolutely terrible” and likely to confuse vulnerable young people.

And he was critical of the college of psychiatry for not backing Spencer.

“I believe she has been unfairly treated by Queensland Health and I also believe she’s been unfairly treated by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists,” Amos said.

“I am a fellow of the RANZCP, as is Jillian, and that is the professional body that is supposed to represent the interests of the profession and individual psychiatrists.”

Spencer was suspended after she questioned the “affirmation model” and the use of puberty blockers at the Queensland Children’s Gender Service at the Queensland Children’s Hospital.

Spencer incurred the wrath of some colleagues by suggesting in interviews that young people complaining of “gender dysphoria” may in fact be suffering from autism spectrum disorder or have hidden traumas or distress due to family breakdowns or bullying and exclusion at school.

Other psychiatrists have now come to Spencer’s defence, saying she has been vindicated by a landmark UK study critical of gender clinics.

Dr Andrew Amos described transgender studies in schools as “absolutely terrible” and likely to confuse vulnerable young people. Picture: Peter Eve

In England, a four-year study by Dr  Hillary Cass exposed the “shaky foundations” on which the National Health Service expanded gender identity treatments. Cass, a pediatrician, said children had been “let down” by the lack of reliable evidence on how safe transitioning was for children. Cass said the service could do more harm than good. The powerful drugs prescribed had numerous harmful side effects.

Her report led to the closure of London’s famous Tavistock gender clinic. The NHS has now banned puberty blockers for those under 18. There are similar bans in France, Italy and Scandinavian countries, but not Australia. Several US states have banned puberty blockers while President-elect Donald Trump says he’ll outlaw them and defund clinics.

The American Society of Pediatricians has called for gender clinics to stop issuing puberty blockers. It also calls for an end to social affirmation and trans support programs like those still operating in Queensland schools.

Instead of being congratulated for her courageous practical and moral stance, Spencer’s career remains in limbo. Queensland Health declined to comment.

Cass said the “toxicity of the debate” in the UK had silenced doctors who had grave doubts about puberty blockers. Amos said doctors face similar pressures here.

“I’ve gone into this in some depth and found a lack of any scientific evidence for gender affirming care, including puberty blockers,” he said.

His research has been published in medical journals.

Jillian Spencer “has paid a price for standing up to Queensland Health,” Dr Andrew Amos says.

“The tide is certainly turning in many countries. And in many states in the US they are rolling back gender care; not just puberty blockers but also … other treatments,” he said.

He understood Queensland Health was “in a very difficult position”.

“Activists are still putting on a lot of pressure to keep Jillian out of her job.”

Amos said puberty blockers weaken bone density and arrest the evolving adolescent brain.

“The college of psychiatrists’ role is to protect psychiatrists like Jillian,” he said. “My strong feeling is that the professional associations like the college of psychiatrists, the college of physicians and the college of GPs have not protected their own members when they have tried to take a stand on ethical matters.

“And they are not protecting the interests of patients.

“It is a very political area.

“If you take puberty blockers for long enough, it will affect your fertility throughout your life.

“It can literally affect the development of neurons, of the information processing units of the brain, which can have severe consequences for people as they age.

“Essentially, what you are doing with puberty blockers and hormone treatments like oestrogen and testosterone is interfering with natural puberty. That means you are interfering with the normal transition between being a child and an adult. It causes enormous problems for both young boys and young girls.

“It is not just physical problems. It causes psychological and psychiatric problems. If you interfere with the natural process of puberty, you make all those problems worse, you don’t make them better.”

Amos was critical of the Miles government’s “independent review” of Queensland’s children’s gender services back in February.

He believes people with “vested interests” influenced the review.

“If you read the Queensland Health report, they completely ignore the Cass review,” he said.

“Cass says there is no good evidence that puberty blockers and hormone treatments like oestrogen and testosterone improve health or mental health in kids.

“Cass said it is extremely unusual for a health service to roll out a new treatment before there is any evidence it actually helps people.”

Amos fears a hidden agenda, saying “this is not a medical treatment, it is actually a political movement”.

Trans-rights activists make no secret that they want to “educate” children, he said. “Kids don’t have the same sort of established common sense that adults have, so it is much easier to convince them the other side of things is something they may be interested in,” he said.

“What’s going on in schools is an absolutely terrible thing. But it is also an illustration that this is a political movement and not a medical treatment per se.”

He worries about the number of double mastectomies being performed on girls under 18 wanting to be seen as men.

“I don’t think we know half of it,” he said. “I am extremely concerned that the gender affirming care, the provision of puberty blockers and the expanding rate of procedures like mastectomies demonstrates that medicine in general, and psychiatry in particular, does not have the ethical integrity to ensure that we fulfil the first principle of medicine, which is ‘Do no harm’.”

Doctors were afraid to discuss gender diversity treatments.

“Jillian has paid a price for standing up to Queensland Health,” Amos said. “I sit on a couple of college psychiatry committees, and I have directly asked the members of the board why the college is not doing anything about this and I have never received a satisfactory answer.”

Amos feared the college “has essentially undergone what is called institutional capture”. “The college is absolutely remiss,” he said.

“They are not listening to people … who are raising these issues.”

(The college did not respond to phone messages or written questions.)