Why this is a turning point for trans healthcare in Australia

Australia’s clinical guidelines for healthcare for trans and gender-diverse young people are best practice, developed by clinicians. Nonetheless, Friday’s announcement by Minister for healthcare and Aged Care Mark Butler is a significant moment for trans healthcare care in Australia.

The decision to commission the National Healthcare and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to review Australian standards of care and treatment guidelines for trans and gender-diverse children and adolescents is not about politics – it is about ensuring that best-practice, evidence-based care is guided by the nation’s leading experts and informed by lived experience.

Transgender rights activists demonstrate outside the Victorian parliament in 2022.Credit: Chris Hopkins

For too long, healthcare of trans young people has been subject to political interference, with state governments initiating their own ad hoc reviews, often without consulting medical professionals who provide this care – or those who need it.

The Queensland government’s recent decision to suspend new prescriptions of gender-affirming hormone therapy while it conducted its own review is a dangerous example of this – one that places young lives at risk and sent a harmful message that trans young people’s healthcare could be debated and delayed for political convenience.

What the federal government has done is something fundamentally different. Rather than allowing state-by-state politicisation of trans healthcare, Minister Butler has taken the issue out of the hands of politicians and put it where it belongs – with Australia’s leading experts in healthcare and medical research.

The NHMRC’s review will be rigorous, impartial, grounded in evidence and will include the voices of trans people. As the Australian Professional Association for Trans healthcare (AusPATH), we represent more than 600 doctors, psychologists and healthcare professionals working with trans people every day.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

We welcome this opportunity to update the Australian Standards of Care in line with the latest research. Gender-affirming care is already delivered with extensive safeguards, and any new guidelines must be based on evidence, not ideology.

Crucially, this review must not be used as an excuse to delay or disrupt access to gender-affirming healthcare. Minister Butler has been clear that healthcare should not be a political football, and we agree. The Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the Australian Psychological Society all recognise gender-affirming care as best practice.

International healthcare bodies including the World Health Organisation also support its effectiveness in improving mental healthcare and reducing suicidality among trans young people. In many ways, Australia is ahead of other countries in protecting access to gender-affirming care. While the UK’s National Health Service has restricted access to puberty blockers for trans young people, Australia continues to provide this care under strict clinical guidelines.

Similarly, several US states have enacted sweeping bans on gender-affirming care, forcing trans young people to travel across state lines or seek care in secret. By contrast, Australia’s framework remains grounded in medical expertise, not political ideology. However, we cannot be complacent.

Without a firm commitment to evidence-based care, Australia risks following the path of countries where access has been eroded by misinformation and fearmongering.

This review is an opportunity to strengthen our healthcare system and ensure that trans young people receive the care they need without unnecessary barriers or delays. We know that delaying access to care has real consequences.

Young people experiencing gender dysphoria who are denied treatment will undergo irreversible physical changes that may cause deep distress and increase their risk of mental healthcare crises. We cannot allow a scenario where, under the guise of “reviewing” care, access is withheld or compromised.

This should be a turning point – an opportunity to move beyond the fearmongering and misinformation that have too often clouded discussions of gender-affirming care.

Our responsibility is to ensure that this review remains focused on what matters most: healthcare and wellbeing of trans young people. This means standing up against attempts to delay care, amplifying expert voices and calling out misinformation wherever it appears.

Every supporter of evidence-based healthcare – clinicians, researchers, advocates or community members – must make their voices heard and demand that this review strengthens, rather than weakens, access to gender-affirming care.

AusPATH will fight to ensure that experts, clinicians and people with lived experience remain central to the process, and that any new guidelines reflect the overwhelming evidence that gender-affirming care saves lives.

Dr Eloise Brook is the CEO of AusPATH, the peak body for the rights and wellbeing of all trans people.