Consultation on safety measures for the use of puberty blockers in gender-related health closed at 5pm today [Monday, 20 January], but it is too little and too late, says the Women’s Rights Party.

The Ministry of Health asked whether additional safety measures are needed, whether prescribing should be further restricted, whether young people with gender-related health needs should be able to receive this treatment if prescribing is further restricted, and what impacts there could be from additional safety measures.

Women’s Rights Party Co-leader Jill Ovens says the questions are odd, given there are no safety measures currently in place, and the use of puberty blockers (GnRH) to treat conditions related to “gender distress” is not a registered use of the hormones.

Puberty blockers are licensed only for use in young children (for precocious puberty) or older adults (for certain cancers). Use of puberty blockers for gender incongruence or dysphoria is not currently licensed, which means the safety and risk implications for use with gender dysphoria have not been assessed.

In its submission, the Women’s Rights Party urged the Ministry to immediately take on board the findings of the damning final UK Cass Report, released in April last year, which found young people had been given life-changing treatment despite "remarkably weak" evidence of safety or effectiveness.

Ms Ovens says the Ministry has failed to provide leadership, and the Government has had to step in to push for action on regulation.

“New Zealand health authorities have been held hostage to a vocal minority who have put our children’s health at risk of lifelong irreversible damage,” she says.

Ms Ovens says the Ministry’s consultation document made a particular point of inviting vested interests which promote puberty blockers, to provide input.

“This suggests that the Ministry is not basing its advice on medical and professional evidence, despite that fact that its own review found a lack of good quality evidence for the effectiveness or safety of puberty blocking treatment in young people with gender dysphoria,” she says.

Ms Ovens says at one stage, the Ministry of Health quietly removed a claim from its website stating that puberty blockers were "safe and reversible", yet the Ministry continued to prevaricate on its duty to provide leadership across the health system.

In the meantime, Pharmac data that excludes young children and older adults (i.e. includes only 12-17 year olds) shows an alarming increase in the use of such medicines from 2014 to 2022, which can only be off-label to treat children and adolescents presenting with gender-related distress.

The use of puberty blockers for such children is relatively new. Until the emergence of ‘the Dutch Protocol’, which set criteria for use of puberty blockers in gender medicine, treatment of a small number of mainly pre-pubertal boys had been therapeutic.

From 2014, puberty blockers were given to a broader group of patients who would not have met the inclusion criteria of the original protocol; notably adolescent girls.

The Women’s Rights Party says the unquestioning use of puberty blockers for the rapidly expanding cohort of adolescent girls already experiencing puberty was a dereliction of medical ethics.

“This should have been of considerable concern in light of follow-up studies dating as far back as 2008, showing that childhood criteria may ‘scoop in’ girls who are unlikely to persist with gender dysphoria into adulthood, and are more likely than the general female population to be lesbian or bisexual.”

As Cass reported: “Puberty is an intense period of rapid change and can be a difficult process, where young people are vulnerable to mental health problems, particularly girls. Unwelcome bodily changes and experiences can be uncomfortable for all young people, but this can be particularly distressing for young neurodiverse people who may struggle with the sensory changes.”

The Women’s Rights Party supports a holistic approach that looks at other conditions often found in young people presenting with “gender distress”, including ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), body dysmorphia (includes eating disorders such as anorexia), and sexual abuse.

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