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The gender clinic at the Perth Children’s Hospital enables double mastectomies for its teenage female patients who identify as boys, according to an internal document the West Australian Cook Labor government tried to keep secret.
The four-year-old model of care document – abruptly tabled in state parliament in November after months of refusals to disclose it – reveals that the gender clinic will connect interested under-18 patients with private surgeons for “top surgery”, or mastectomy, while stressing the “personal responsibility” of the girl and her family for the choice.
There is no accurate public data on the extent of under-18 transgender mastectomy in Australia. Knowing the very idea is strongly opposed by mainstream opinion, activists downplay it or outright deny it happens, despite this surgery being documented in Family Court rulings.
In September 2016, a year after its formal start, the Perth gender clinic had 14 legal minors – patients aged under 18 – on puberty blockers. This number rose to 71 in the same month last year, an increase of 407 per cent. These figures were obtained under Freedom of Information law; the clinic does not publish regular treatment data.
Although the Perth Children’s Hospital gender clinic enables double mastectomies and a fast track to puberty blockers for younger minors “with a strong wish” to stop their natural puberty, the model of care is at pains to say it does not offer “extended or intensive counselling or psychotherapy”, nor formal diagnosis of autism or ADHD.
One of WA’s most distinguished physicians, Gary Geelhoed – who served as the state’s chief medical officer and assistant director-general for the WA Department of Health – told The Australian he believed it was “unethical” for female minors to be referred for mastectomies.
Professor Geelhoed, who also served as WA president of the Australian Medical Association, urged the medical profession to advocate for an Australia-wide ban on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery for gender-confused minors.
Source: The Australian