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A prominent Australian psychiatrist who has warned of the risks of gender-affirming medical treatment for children and teenagers has been banned from posting his objections on social media and had restrictions put on his practice by the health regulator.
Queensland psychiatrist Andrew Amos has been ordered by the Medical Board of Australia and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to stop making online statements about gender issues and is barred from having direct clinical contact with any patients.
Dr Amos’s supporters say the move is a warning to medical professionals who might consider speaking out publicly against gender-affirming treatment for minors, and that it represents a gross overreach by regulators in response to complaints by trans activists.
Dr Amos is an academic psychiatrist at James Cook University and chair of the Queensland Section of Rural Psychiatry with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists but has been at odds with the RANZCP over gender medicine, arguing that the gender-affirming model of care is incompatible with evidence-based practice.
Under the restrictions, Dr Amos must provide AHPRA with details of all his social media profiles to show he has not posted any comments “in relation to gender medicine, gender identity and/or expression and transgender persons”. Also, he cannot practise except at an “approved” location and is barred from “any role requiring direct or indirect clinical patient contact”. The condition does not affect him while he is working as an academic but would be severely limiting if he returned to clinical practice.
It is understood the conditions were imposed in response to four complaints, the first following controversy over the case of transwoman Jennifer Buckley, who had transitioned from male to female and used a combination of hormones and drugs to bring on lactation to breastfeed her son.
In September 2024, Dr Amos said in a post on X that men who induced lactation were the embodiment of narcissism but did not refer directly to Ms Buckley.
Last year, the Medical Board received two anonymous complaints over an ABC online article which quoted Dr Amos criticising gender-affirming medical treatment and cited posts he had made on X that “there is no reliable evidence that trans identification can be differentiated from psychosis” and that “doctors who affirm gender delusions are liable for patient harms”.
A final complaint in September last year related to an exchange on X between Dr Amos and Stephen Whittle, a transman in the UK, in which Dr Amos suggested Professor Whittle was a woman pretending to be a man.
Dr Amos declined to comment about the case. AHPRA declined to answer questions about why conditions had been imposed on Dr Amos but issued a statement saying: “AHPRA and the National Boards expect healthcare to be delivered free from discrimination … We respect practitioners’ freedom of expression, including advocacy via social media, provided it does not involve abuse, discrimination, or pose a risk to public safety.”