Newcastle mum Jude Hunter says medical professionals failed her child – and shattered her entire family – after the teenager was prescribed cross-sex hormones following a one-hour appointment.
“My daughter suffered three years of precarious mental health before announcing at 17 that she was transgender and identified as a boy,” she said.
“Yet the only issue the clinicians explored at the time was gender. I will never understand how the medical profession ever gave a disturbed teenager access to irreversible hormones.”
Gender-affirming treatment in Australia is in the spotlight, with the federal government announcing late last month it would conduct a landmark review into the prescription of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for children and adolescents.
The government has tasked the independent National Health and Medical Research Council to develop new national guidelines for the treatment and care of trans and gender diverse youth. Interim advice on the use of puberty blockers will be completed mid next year.