WELLINGTON, NOVEMBER 22ND 2024
Speak Up for Women (SUFW) is disappointed with the hollow announcement by the Ministry of Health yesterday on apparent Additional safeguards for puberty blockers.
The Ministry has sent a confusing message to medical professionals and parents with its latest guidance regarding puberty blocker evidence and use.
On one hand the statement appears to indicate acknowledgement and acceptance of the findings of the widely read Cass report - that there is a lack of high quality evidence of any benefit of the use of puberty blockers in young people with gender dysphoria. On the other hand, the statement asks only that clinicians exercise caution when prescribing blockers - something that surely should have been occurring anyway, given that the blockers are prescribed to minors, off-label, and with no clinical trial evidence available.
Furthermore, two years ago, in September 2022, the Ministry quietly dropped the assertion on their website that the use of puberty blockers in cases relating to “gender” was safe and reversible.
The Ministry has always insisted that a holistic care approach was standard, yet this latest announcement and policy document seems to describe exactly that, rebranded as a new precautionary approach.
The move away from general practitioner prescriptions to clinicians with experience in gender-affirming healthcare seems to be an indication that it will be ‘business as usual’ for the clinicians who are responsible for New Zealand having a prescription rate of seven times the international average.
Far from adding a layer of protection for New Zealand children questioning their identity, all the Ministry has done is open public consultation on possible restrictions, but given no concrete guidelines or restrictions to clinicians. Caution is a subjective term.
In this consultation MOH is particularly seeking input from “organisations that represent people who may be affected by safety measures or that may be involved in how safety measures are used in practice”. Is this purely an invitation to gender ideologues or will the government truly listen to critical views?
Since Finland stopped broad use of puberty blockers in 2020, many other countries have chosen bans, or at the very least introduced restrictions ensuring a very cautious approach.
It seems an extraordinary approach and we wonder if the same loose rules apply to other treatments unrelated to the gender identity fad - are these factors usually ignored when prescribing to children?
Drugs that are used off label
Drugs that are not proven to be safe or reversible
Drugs that have little or no evidence of beneficial effects
Drugs where there are no clinical trials or evidence of long-term side effects when taken in children beyond puberty
The New Zealand media, and Winston Peters, are heralding this a great step in the right direction, but we say it is nowhere near enough and New Zealand children, their parents, and their doctors need evidence-based guidelines from our Ministry immediately.
ENDS
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