Doctors blast opaqueness of gender clinics
Australia’s major gender clinics won’t say if they are tracking the long-term health outcomes of treated children despite a British review criticising care secrecy.
Australia’s major gender clinics have refused to confirm whether they are tracking long-term health outcomes of thousands of young children they have treated, despite a landmark British review that criticised the opaqueness and secrecy of the medical care.
Children’s hospitals in NSW, Queensland and Victoria have given no indication they will be changing treatment options for young people with gender dysphoria, despite serious issues raised by the Cass review and growing international evidence over the safety and clinical effectiveness of the drugs.
As an increasing number of voices call for an independent inquiry into the prescription of puberty blockers to young teens, medical experts have urged Australian hospitals to release up-to-date information on treatment plans and long-term outcomes of hormone treatments, warning that the current lack of transparency is leading to harmful outcomes.
Clinicians have also hit out at the nation’s peak body for transgender health, AusPATH, after it this week dismissed findings of the Cass review, saying that the medical body was “digging their heeds in” despite increasing alarm over the rising prescription of puberty-blocking drugs in young teenagers.
British health authorities in March banned the routine prescription of puberty blockers to young teens in response to interim findings of the Cass review, following extensive examination of the care being provided to children at London’s Tavistock clinic.
Handing down her final report this week, chairwoman Hilary Cass found the entire field of medicine aimed at enabling children to change gender was “built on shaky foundations”.
The Australian approached several gender clinics, including the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, The Children’s Hospital in Sydney’s Westmead, the Children’s Health Queensland Gender Clinic and Maple Leaf House in Newcastle, NSW, asking how many children were being treated and whether institutions could detail their follow-up policies for previous patients.
The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne forwarded questions on patient figures and reaction to the Cass review to the Victoria Health Department, which failed to respond.
The question of follow-up procedures and outcomes was sent to the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, but a spokeswoman said the key researcher was away on leave.
Queensland Health refused to provide answers to the questions put forward by The Weekend Australian, citing an independent review of practices within the state’s Children’s Gender Service.
NSW Health did not directly respond to questions asked but provided figures on the number of patients seen in 2022 and 2023. In those two years, 294 patients under the age of 16 were treated by The Children’s Hospital while 1787 people under the age of 25 were given care at Maple Leaf House.
Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine president Roberto D’Angelo warned of a lack of transparency around the treatment of young children with gender dysphoria, saying the inadequate sharing of clinical information was “one of the most serious failures noted by the Cass review”.
AusPATH vice-president Portia Predney this week said the Cass review was “at odds with the current evidence base, expert consensus and majority of clinical guidelines around the world”.
Paediatrician Dylan Wilson called on the commonwealth to immediately ban all new puberty blocker prescriptions, saying gender clinics had “absolutely no idea what state of health their former patients are in”.
He also called for a review into why governments and heath organisations ignored the “warnings, red flags and whistleblowers” expressing concern for the use of drugs on young children.
Melbourne-psychiatrist Alison Clayton said there was a lack of “publicly available information about the numbers of 18 year olds being prescribed puberty blockers, oestrogen or testosterone at the public child and adolescent gender clinics or at community or hospital adult clinics.”
Sydney psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed said debate around the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones was being driven by identity politics rather than science.
He said gender issues were “ground zero of the culture wars”.
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