Tasmanian minister ‘prefers’ national inquiry into child gender clinics

Health Minister and Attorney-General Guy Barnett has written to his federal health counterpart asking him to consider reviewing gender clinics. File picture

A senior state cabinet member has written to the federal government asking for it to consider staging a national review into public medical services for children experiencing gender dysphoria.

Health Minister Guy Barnett confirmed he wrote to his federal counterpart, Mark Butler, this week, requesting that he consider a review of gender clinics, following the publication of the Cass review in the UK.

Published in April, the review by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass found that there was a lack of “good evidence” on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress in children.

The review also found that the evidence for the efficacy of medical treatments like hormones to pause puberty or to transition to the opposite sex was built on “shaky foundations”.

Dr Cass recommended that the UK limit prescriptions of gender drugs to children, and that care of gender-diverse children should be “multi-disciplinary” and centred around mental health support rather than medical interventions.

But in his letter to the group this week, Mr Barnett indicated that he believed a national review was preferable.

“This will allow consideration of all available evidence from across the country, to ensure these services are best-practice, evidence-based, and that patient safety and wellbeing is paramount,” his letter to WST read.

“The health and wellbeing needs of all children and young people in Tasmania are of paramount importance.

“It is highly important that these clinics have rigorous patient safety and clinical governance measures in place and prioritise the health and wellbeing of the children and young people who are accessing them.”

Mr Barnett is the first Australian health minister to indicate support for a national review of public gender services for minors.

But his call for national action is likely moot, since Mr Butler has already ruled out a national inquiry.

Rodney Croome, chair of LGBTIQA+ advocacy organisation Equality Tasmania, said there was no need to hold an inquiry into gender clinics in Australia.

“Australian gender services already take the individualised and multi-disciplinary approach recommended by the UK review,” he said.

“We are also concerned that an inquiry would become a platform for prejudice and misinformation against trans and gender diverse people.

“The Tasmanian Liberals gave a pre-election commitment that they would not support an inquiry into youth gender treatment, and Guy Barnett’s letter breaks that promise.

“The government’s broken promise is a betrayal of the LGBTIQA+ community and we will ask Parliament to hold the government accountable for this betrayal,” Mr Croome said.

WST spokesperson Dr Elizabeth Caballero Pastor said while her organisation had requested a state-based inquiry, she was pleased that the state government supported a national inquiry into gender clinics in light of the Cass review’s findings and recent decisions in the UK to restrict gender medications.

The UK government in May imposed a temporary ban on new prescriptions of puberty-blocking drugs.

She said recent Right to Information disclosures have confirmed that the Tasmanian Gender Service is prescribing drugs such as Leuprorelin Acetate to Tasmanian children.

“This powerful drug is used for treatment of advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty,” she wrote in a letter to Mr Barnett.

“There is no safety data or long-term studies for its use in puberty suppression for gender dysphoria and because of its serious adverse reactions such as sterility and sexual dysfunction, it has been recently banned in England.”

Dr Caballero Pastor said the Tasmanian Gender Service uses both the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Guidelines and the World Professional Association of Trans Health (WPATH) SOC 8 guidelines when treating gender-diverse children.

She said the Cass review rated these guidelines poorly for rigour of development – with the RCH scoring 19 out of 100, and the WPATH guidelines as 35 out of 100.

“No doubt your government will be alarmed at these ratings which apply to the Tasmanian Gender Service,” Dr Caballero Pastor wrote in the letter to Mr Barnett.

Source: The Examiner

https://www.examiner.com.au/story/8663602/tasmanian-minister-supports-national-review-of-gender-services