Australia’s clinical guidelines for healthcare for trans and gender-diverse young people are best practice, developed by clinicians. Nonetheless, Friday’s announcement by Minister for healthcare and Aged Care Mark Butler is a significant moment for trans healthcare care in Australia.
The decision to commission the National Healthcare and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to review Australian standards of care and treatment guidelines for trans and gender-diverse children and adolescents is not about politics – it is about ensuring that best-practice, evidence-based care is guided by the nation’s leading experts and informed by lived experience.
Transgender rights activists demonstrate outside the Victorian parliament in 2022.Credit: Chris Hopkins
For too long, healthcare of trans young people has been subject to political interference, with state governments initiating their own ad hoc reviews, often without consulting medical professionals who provide this care – or those who need it.
The Queensland government’s recent decision to suspend new prescriptions of gender-affirming hormone therapy while it conducted its own review is a dangerous example of this – one that places young lives at risk and sent a harmful message that trans young people’s healthcare could be debated and delayed for political convenience.
What the federal government has done is something fundamentally different. Rather than allowing state-by-state politicisation of trans healthcare, Minister Butler has taken the issue out of the hands of politicians and put it where it belongs – with Australia’s leading experts in healthcare and medical research.
The NHMRC’s review will be rigorous, impartial, grounded in evidence and will include the voices of trans people. As the Australian Professional Association for Trans healthcare (AusPATH), we represent more than 600 doctors, psychologists and healthcare professionals working with trans people every day.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
We welcome this opportunity to update the Australian Standards of Care in line with the latest research. Gender-affirming care is already delivered with extensive safeguards, and any new guidelines must be based on evidence, not ideology.
Crucially, this review must not be used as an excuse to delay or disrupt access to gender-affirming healthcare. Minister Butler has been clear that healthcare should not be a political football, and we agree. The Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the Australian Psychological Society all recognise gender-affirming care as best practice.
