The truth About transgender Medicine
Therapists speaking out
Counsellor, Fritha Robinson, in a July 2025 substack titled Fueling Obsessions, compares transgender ideation with the earlier medical scandal of recovered memory syndrome. She says, “It is well-documented that a large number of people who identify as trans have been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which is significant because many of these individuals describe obsessions with the belief that the next medical procedure or treatment will alleviate their distress. Tragically, far too often, this obsession has been affirmed and enabled by mental health providers who confuse helping with enabling.”
Dr Jillian Spencer vindicated by Queensland government's puberty blocker freeze Dr Spencer is "thrilled" that the government is investigating puberty blockers after she opposed the automatic affirmation of gender-confused children and suffered professional consequences as a result.
I thought I was saving trans kids. Jamie Reed, a former counsellor, blows the whistle on the harmful practices in US gender clinics. “What’s happening to children is morally and medically appalling.”
In this Free Post article, Finnish specialist, Dr Riittakerttu Kaltiala explains that “My country, and others, found there is no solid evidence supporting the medical transitioning of young people.”
Genspect NZ was launched at a webinar on 10 November 2023 and its new Gender Care Framework was introduced. Genspect's vision is to move beyond a medical understanding of gender identity and gender distress that typically leads to invasive medical interventions and toward a deeper understanding of gender and identity.
A Terrible Trap by Charlotte Paul about the dangers of puberty blockers, was published in the December 2023 issue of "North and South". Paul says, "We have taught these girls to think they are really boys and thus to be disturbed by the changes of puberty... The only solution looks to be the suppressing of puberty. We adults have encouraged children to think like this."
The Royal Australian and NZ College of Psychiatrists published Position Statement 103 in August 2021 that advises “Comprehensive assessment is crucial” for patients with gender dysphoria because it is “an emerging field of research” with a “paucity of evidence”.
An open letter to Australia’s doctors
Dr Dylan Wilson describes the problems with the gender affirmative pathway for children and why he will never refer a child to the paediatric gender service at his local hospital.
Thoughtful Therapists are a group of counsellors, clinical psychologists, and psychotherapists from across the UK and Ireland who work directly with LGBT+ adults, children, parents and young people, in the field of gender and sexuality. They have come together in a bid to protect the integrity of the open-ended exploration of feelings and ideas that has always been a necessary component of ethical and effective therapy.
Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM)
The aim of this group is to promote safe, compassionate, ethical, and evidence-informed healthcare for children, adolescents, and young adults with gender dysphoria.
This group was formed in Canada in 2021 by community members who are concerned about the direction that gender medicine and activism has taken. It advocates for a more evidence-based, less ideological conversation about gender dysphoria and has detailed information on the topic.
The evidence mounts
In a paper written by psychiatrists Korte and Gille and published in 2024 in the journal of the German Society for Sexual Medicine, Sexual Therapy and Sexual Science, the authors identify multiple pathways for the development of trans identity in adolescents, including delayed maturation, non-conformity to gender roles, sexuality problems, and psychiatric conditions such as autism, trauma or personality disorders.
The US Department of Health and Human Services' review of gender medicine for children (May 2025) came to the same conclusion as the Cass Review, that "The evidence for benefit of pediatric medical transition is very uncertain, while the evidence for harm is less uncertain" ... and, "A more robust evidence base supports psychotherapeutic approaches to managing common comorbid mental health conditions."
The Rising Tide of Transgender Identity - What's Going On? This video from Genspect explains the causes and effects of the transgender phenomenon in less than eleven minutes.
An independent review of data from the Tavistock Clinic found no evidence of increased suicide following release of the Cass Report.
In a new study (2024), the Mayo Clinic has found mild to severe atrophy in the testes of boys on puberty blockers, leading the authors to express doubt in the claims that these drugs are 'safe and reversible'.
Banning the Blockers. In this Quillette article, Bernard Lane gives an overview of the use of puberty blockers as a routine treatment for gender distress and the resulting medical scandal.
March 2024. A major medical scandal in the UK and US has had almost no media coverage in NZ.
The WPATH files are documents leaked from the internal chatboard of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). They shine a light on how so-called “gender-affirming care” or “transgender medicine” is leading to widespread medical malpractice on children and vulnerable adults. WPATH is extremely influential in shaping UK treatment protocols in the NHS. Thousands of children and vulnerable adults are being treated under these protocols. The leaked files reveal that treatments may do more harm than good, and suggest that some clinicians who are members of WPATH know this. (Sex Matters)
In a BBC Newsnight report, a re-analysis of a landmark study about the efficacy of puberty blockers shows the mental health of 34% of the children deteriorated after 12 months of puberty blockers and 27% stayed the same.
Is NZ's transgender medicine guideline an example of regulatory failure? Jan Rivers has published a 20 page report assessing the PATHA (Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa) guideline for transgender care. “Like a lot of gender ideology research, the quality is very poor,” she says.
Unlawful. In this article, Bernard Lane describes how the NZ Ministry of Health was warned by Medsafe in September 2022 it could be breaking the law by publicising the off-label use of puberty blockers for children.
Questions mount around the use of puberty blockers in children. by Jan Rivers. "New Zealand rates of puberty blocker use are much higher than the UK, where the Tavistock Clinic’s Gender Service (GIDS) was closed due to unsafe practices. In New Zealand, Dr Sue Bagshaw reports that 65 per cent of her clinic’s 100 patients receive them. The Tavistock GIDS clinic prescribed blockers to about 6 per cent."
What America has got wrong about gender medicine. This article in the Economist calls transgender medicine a “tragedy of good intentions” and argues that “Too many doctors have suspended their professional judgement.”
The British Medical Journal has published a balanced investigation into the care of young people with gender dysphoria that reached the conclusion: “If we have the best interests of young people at heart, then surely our duty is to offer evidence informed care? And, if the evidence base is weak, we must provide the necessary support to young people as well as prioritising research to answer questions on issues that are causing a great deal of distress, much of which is amplified by social media. Taking this route is essential: an evidence void not only exposes people to overtreatment but can also be used to deny people the care that they seek, such as through the draconian laws now being introduced in some US states. A better appreciation of the evidence, as well as the limits of medicine, is also the basis of a more constructive dialogue.”
How the Tavistock gender clinic ran out of control. An in depth look at the revelations in Time to Think, the book by Hannah Barnes that gives the inside story of the collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Identity Service for Children.
In this interview, detransitioner Ritchie Herron describes the catastrophic effects of his gender surgery which he says was "the biggest mistake of my life."
On GB News, detransitioners Keira Bell and Ritchie Herron describe the lack of information they were given about the side effects of surgery and the pressure they felt under to agree to the recommendations of their doctors and therapists.
Keira Bell: My Story - Persuasion
As a teen, Keira transitioned to male but came to regret it. Faced with the loss of her breasts, possible infertility, atrophied genitals and a permanently deeper voice and facial hair, Keira became a claimant in a judicial review against the gender health clinic that had treated her. The case was upheld, with the court noting that it was “very doubtful” that patients aged 14 and 15 could give fully informed consent.
ROGD (Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria) Dr Lisa Littman
Here is the research underpinning Dr Littman’s coining of the phrase, “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” to describe the sudden increase in teens announcing a transgender identity.
Top trans doctors blow the whistle on sloppy care - Abigail Shrier
In this ground-breaking interview with two leading transgender doctors, they admit that some transgender healthcare has been “sloppy” and one states, “I’m worried that decisions will be made that will later be regretted by those making them.”
Another unfortunate experiment? New Zealand's Transgender Health Policy and it's Impact on Children by Jan Rivers and Jill Abigail
In this NZ research paper, Rivers and Abigail analyse the dramatic rise in the presentation of gender dysphoria and gather abundant evidence that the use of puberty blockers is neither safe nor effective.