Push to pause gender hormone therapies for children and adolescents

‘Do 14-year-olds fully understand the risk of permanent infertility?’: A surge in NSW children on puberty blockers has prompted a senior Liberal to call for a pause.

Senior NSW Liberal Damien Tudehope is one of 100 prominent Aussies calling for a pause on gender hormone therapies. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

Exclusive: A senior Liberal has called for a pause on gender hormone therapies as figures show the number of children receiving puberty blockers from NSW government-run clinics had risen from just eight to more than 150 in a decade.

Senior NSW Liberal Damien Tudehope is one of the 100 prominent Australians who have been calling on the federal government to hold a national inquiry into the medical treatment given to teens experiencing gender dysphoria.

Puberty blockers are suppressant hormones that are given to children to stop the onset of physical characteristics that may not fit with their gender identity.

Stage 2 treatment, which involves taking oestrogen or testosterone and leads to facial hair or breast development, is not always reversible.

The Albanese government on Friday announced it would conduct a landmark review into the prescription of puberty blockers with the National Health and Medical Research Council to develop new national guidelines.

While welcoming that, Mr Tudehope said all hormone therapies to teens needed to be paused during the review.

NSW Health operates three gender clinics, with the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network service and Maple Leaf House operated by the Hunter New England Local Health District supporting referrals of patients under 16 years.

A third clinic operated by the South East Sydney Local Health District called True Colours was opened in December last year targeting patients between 16 and 24 years.

NSW Health referral figures for 2024 released to The Sunday Telegraph show the number of children and young people referred to one of the three clinics has risen to 571.

Not all referrals result in puberty blockers or Stage 2 hormone therapies being given.

There were 61 children receiving puberty blockers from the Westmead service in 2023 – up from only eight in 2014.

Another 91 children received puberty blockers from the Maple Leaf service in 2023.

Figures for True Colours, which only opened late last year, were not available.

The figures do not include hormone therapies being accessed at private clinics.

According to NSW Health – and based on the latest Census data – about 1 in 150 people in Australia are gender diverse.

Mr Tudehope said he was calling for a pause amid concerns about future legal issues.

“There is a legal liability if NSW Health is providing these services and then detransitioners later say that they weren’t getting the right treatment,” he said.

“We also need to look at how the system deals with consent. You can’t consent to what you don’t know. What constitutes proper consent? Do 14-year-olds really understand the risk of being permanently infertile and the consequences of that?”

Puberty blockers were banned in Britain last year, while Queensland this week paused them after a Cairns clinic delivered unauthorised pediatric gender services.

Originally published as Push to pause gender hormone therapies for children and adolescents