In 2020, the NSW government commissioned the Sax Institute to conduct a review of “Evidence for effective interventions for children and young people with gender dysphoria”. This report was used to support its “Framework for the Specialist Trans and Gender Diverse Health Service for People Under 25 Years”, which was unveiled last year.
Since 2020, however, growing concern from local clinicians, supported by evidence emerging internationally, has brought the direction of this policy into question. From 2021, clinicians at Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital raised concerns about the growing number of children presenting with gender dysphoria and the expectations that they would be fast-tracked to medical interventions.
In response, NSW Health commissioned an “update” to its initial evidence review. This was released last week, together with an info-graphic-style summary of the high level conclusions.
Unfortunately, for all the words generated, this exercise is unlikely to silence the growing disquiet about medical gender affirmation for children in Australia.
First, the Sax Institute is not independent of NSW Health.
NSW Health has committed heavily to the medical model, both through its support for the Maple Leaf House gender clinic, affiliated with John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, and through the millions of dollars – nearly $14 million for the financial year 2022/2023[4] – it provides to the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON), which operates as an activist lobby group promoting medical gender affirmation.
NSW Health also funds the Sax Institute.
The biased and limited terms of reference provided to the Sax Institute appear to particular disadvantage when contrasted with the broad and wide-ranging scope provided to the UK’s Cass Review.
Given the difference in the terms of reference, it is perhaps not surprising the Sax Institute and the Cass Review came be very different conclusions on a number of important questions. To take just one example, on the subject of puberty blockers, the Sax Institute concluded that “newly identified evidence reinforced the finding of the previous Evidence Check regarding benefits and effectiveness. That is, PS [puberty suppression] agents (generally referred to as GnRHa) were reported to be safe, effective and reversible.”
There is now such strong international evidence to contradict the assertion of the Sax Institute that this issue alone will be seen as justification for disregarding any of its other assertions.
Health and safety, along with the ignoring of issues such as autism, child sexual abuse, misogyny (which is generating/adding to girls’ despair vis-a-vis their developing bodies, the natural progression of adolescence – all of which are of course directly referrable to health and safety, are at the heart of this issue. The damage being done to young people – and the consequences of disinformation/misinformation being pressed upon young children – is immeasurable. Surely someone in government has some grasp of the real issues here, rather than following political ideology.