A prominent gender doctor, who serves on the board of gender medicine lobby the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH), has set up an online clinic where his legal advice on access to hormonal treatment for minors has been challenged as inaccurate.
Dr Darren Russell’s new Australia-wide clinic, Prism Health, also highlights savings of almost $1,000 a year if puberty blockers are imported from overseas suppliers, which his website says is legal with a doctor’s prescription.
Last month, Queensland became the first Australian state to pause new treatment of gender-distressed minors with puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones in the public health sector, pending an independent review of the evidence. In the UK, routine use of blocker drugs has been restricted in both public and private health.2
The advice from Dr Russell’s Australian online clinic is that under the law, puberty blockers can go ahead in the state of Victoria with only one parent’s consent, and that cross-sex hormone treatment in Queensland does not require parental approval if the minor is mature enough.
Emeritus professor of law Patrick Parkinson said both those claims, which favour easier access to these contested treatments, are incorrect.
“In all cases, and in all states and territories, the consent of both parents must be given for any child or young person under 18, or in the alternative, the [federal Family Court] must give its approval,” Professor Parkinson told GCN.
“I am rather surprised that a doctor is purporting to give legal information on a public website.”
Dr Russell’s new website says that he was Cairns sexual health director until late 2024, when he moved to Victoria to establish the private provider Prism Health, which is promoted as an “online gender-affirming healthcare service.”3