Calls are growing for a review of the nation’s gender clinics and the prescription of puberty blockers to teenagers after Britain’s leading Tavistock Clinic was closed down.
The ordered close of the Tavistock Clinic – the model for treating trans people around the world – on Thursday followed concerns raised by doctors that young patients were being referred on to a gender transitioning path too quickly and that there was insufficient evidence as to the long-term cognitive and physical impacts of puberty blockers.
With several major Australian gender clinics based at children’s hospitals having been strongly influenced by the Tavistock Clinic, some doctors say the findings of the British review by Dr Hilary Cass are likely to apply equally in Australia amid a dominance of a “gender affirming” approach to treating gender dysphoria.
The close of the Tavistock Clinic comes as Dr Cass recommends a shift to a more “holistic” mode of care amid concerns that other clinical presentations including mental health issues were “overshadowed” when gender was raised by children referred to the clinic.
Puberty blockers will now only be able to be prescribed in the UK as part of a clinical trial that follows children until adulthood.
“Puberty blockers, rather than acting as a “pause button” allowing children time to explore their identity, seem to lock them into a medicalised treatment pathway,” Dr Cass’s interim report said.
Source: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/…/2b826d34b5d11063cf54…
Dear Anna and everyone at the Feminist Legal team,
How do I lend my voice to calling for this review? Who would hold it? Who has the power to impose safeguards on gender transition.
Both my neurodiverse daughters have been gaslit by this poisonous narrative that they are born in the wrong body. I am at my wits end trying to keep them safe from something they are very likely to deeply regret. Why does my daughters’ human right to a family life depend on my powers of dissuasion as a parent? Would love to hear your advice on advocacy options: toriestherrosenbaum@gmail.com
Thanks again for everything you do to protect the rights of women and children in Australia.
I have recently emailed you Tori. Please check your spam folder.