UK NHS Report Casts a Shadow on Australian Gender Clinic Practices

MEDIA RELEASE – Genspect Australia

Current medical treatments for children with gender dysphoria lack supporting evidence, according to a critical report from the National Health Service (NHS), although hormonal ‘gender-affirming care’ continues unabated in children’s clinics across Australia.

The NHS report by eminent UK paediatrician, Dr Hilary Cass, concludes that medical treatment is not the best route for most young people questioning their gender identity, and although cross-sex hormone treatment of 16-year-olds is available, “extreme caution” is recommended.

Genspect Australia welcomes the report but says it does not go far enough. “We hope this finally awakens Australian clinicians and politicians to the danger of inflicting permanent life-changing treatments on children, adolescents and young adults who have difficulty accepting their bodies”.

In Australia, current standard treatments for children confused about their sex include immediate social transition to live as the other sex, puberty-blocking drugs from age 10, and cross-sex hormones from age 14. Contrary to public perception, girls as young as 15 have had double mastectomies to “affirm” their chosen gender.

Genspect is an international organisation promoting a non-medicalised path of treatment for gender-questioning children and youths, using psychotherapy. “We hope this report opens the debate in Australia because at the moment anyone questioning the current alarming treatments is attacked as a ‘bigot’ and a ‘transphobe’ in an attempt by activists to silence them. Doctors are scared to speak out” said a spokesperson.

Dr Jillian Spencer, a whistle-blowing child psychiatrist currently suspended from duty in Queensland Health for speaking out about her concerns on the practices at the Queensland Children’s Gender Service concurs. “It is bizarre that within the course of a decade, a radical treatment with cross-sex hormones that turns physically healthy children into medical patients for life has become so widely accepted that clinicians are threatened with deregistration if they do not comply. The Cass Report is a step forward in the discussion and should give doctors the courage to express their concerns.”

“Most of the children and young people presenting to gender clinics have complex mental health problems, autism, a history of trauma including sexual assault, or are just same-sex-attracted and confused by their developing sexuality. Responsible medical practice involves exploration of the basis for gender-related distress and efforts to help the child become comfortable in their body, but not hormonal treatment,” said Dr Spencer.

The release of the report coincides with the finalisation of a Queensland Health evaluation of their children’s gender service and will be hard for that committee to ignore.

Contact ausnz@genspect.org.