Activist-Written Guidelines Risk Undermining Patient Safety

The New Zealand government is ignoring a growing international consensus about puberty blockers. The use of puberty blockers for gender distress is experimental, unproven and increasingly being restricted globally. Finland, Sweden, Brazil and the UK have already curtailed the use of these powerful hormonal interventions for children, but in New Zealand prescriptions continue at one of the highest rates in the world.

Jan Rivers, Genspect NZ spokesperson, states: “Gender-distressed children deserve evidence-based care. Overseas data show these drugs are not life-saving, do not improve mental health and risk irreversible harms. Releasing activist-written guidelines before independent data are available on outcomes would trash the regulatory safeguards meant to protect children. Children deserve better than guidelines that are little better than a drug-marketing brochure. This is precisely the sort of ideological treatment recommendation that our regulations are supposed to prevent.”

It is also deeply irresponsible for the media to repeat activist talking points that these drugs are ‘life-saving’. Such claims are unsupported by long-term evidence and downplay serious risks, particularly for minors. Oversimplifying complex medical interventions to produce emotive slogans does nothing to advance safe, ethical care.

Genspect NZ calls for:

1. An immediate, independent audit of every child already given puberty blockers.
2. A halt on new prescriptions until comprehensive outcome data are published and independently reviewed.

Health regulation exists to shield children from the harms of experimental treatment. The Ministry of Health must resist politicised pressure and uphold the principles of evidence-based medicine.