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.
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”.
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