NZ puberty blockers update
In which MoH removes a statement on their website saying puberty blockers are safe but then says that doesn't mean they're unsafe, and associated events.
So before I started this newsletter I’d just been taking notes on what was happening in the gender space because it feels like so much was happening so quickly, and I wanted a record of it. This is one of those posts, me catching up with myself about the incredible weirdness of being in a country taken over by the gender faith which causing all sorts of incoherent statements from people in charge. I know others are doing this more systematically, looking at puberty blockers in NZ, but here’s my go at it.
In summary, we’ve had a breakthrough where some mainstream media have reported something other than good news on the whole puberty blockers situation and someone’s done amazing number-crunching to show prescription of puberty blockers are 10 times the rate in the UK and have increased exponentially over the past decade. And the MoH is very confused.
Timeline
Before August 2022 - Puberty blockers - Ministry of Health website (page now superceded)
NZ’s Ministry of Health in NZ say puberty blockers are harmless and reversible despite mounting concerns about puberty blockers overseas. A number of people write to them to ask them to remove or change the statement.
18 August
Parents of gender-questioning children in NZ being let down. Newsroom.
Newsroom publishes an opinion piece by public health researcher Dr. Sarah Donovan. In it Donovan reports on international developments in the understanding of puberty blockers, such as the closure of UK’s Tavistock clinic, and the associated Cass report. She asks why New Zealand parents aren’t being fully informed by either the government or media.
22 August
PATHA statement about the interim report from the Cass Review in the United Kingdom. PATHA website.
PATHA1 writes a piece in response to the CASS report (about UK’s Tavistock gender clinic) which also says “Some media reports have mentioned the use of puberty blockers. In Aotearoa New Zealand, these are prescribed based on a carefully considered decision made by the young person and their family in partnership with the health team, where the benefits are considered to outweigh potential risks.” They're hanging on to the idea that blockers are really a force for good, in line with their affirm-only policy.
12 September
Identity crisis: Have we gone too far in letting kids change their gender? NZ Listener. (behind paywall sorry, look at Bernard Lane’s piece to get the gist).
NZ Listener (a major nationwide weekly magazine) published a multipage investigative piece by Charlotte Paul who asks serious questions about blockers and dares to question the before now unquestionable. It’s long, detailed and a big step in NZ given the capture of NZ media to date.
16 September (approx)
Puberty blockers. Ministry of Health website.
Ministry of Health removes the statement from its website that puberty blockers are reversible. On Twitter Fully Informed NZ posted before and after screenshots of the wording:
23 September
On the defensive. Gender Clinic News.
Australia’s Bernard Lane publishes a summary of what’s been going on in NZ. This has some excellent detail, has a good summary of NZ puberty blocker stats.
25 September
Puberty blockers still considered safe and reversible health ministry says. Stuff NZ.
Ministry of Health try and downplay their statement in a Stuff piece. The Stuff article says “The changes [to the website statement] saw anti-trans and conservative groups claiming the quiet change meant the ministry no longer believed blockers were safe and reversible. This was untrue, the ministry said.”
It is unclear whether the pitching of any claims as anti-trans and conservative is from Stuff or the Ministry.
29 September
Puberty blockers use jumps as expert back results. RNZ
RNZ runs a piece where Ruth Hill reports that NZ prescriptions of puberty blockers are ten times higher what they were ten years ago and more than ten times the rate in England and Wales.
So that’s where we’re at today, unless there are behind-the-scenes things happening I don’t know about. Meanwhile, and not unrelated, over in the UK a story broke about the leading trans kids’ charity Mermaids, where some staff and (hastily ex) trustees are displaying pedophilic behaviour. The charity was also found to be sending girls young girls breast binders against their parents wishes. The government health and education services have advised their stakeholders to remove all links to Mermaids in anything they publish. Major funding has been paused. The Charities Commission is due to investigate them. A bit of a turn up when Mermaids instigated a CC investigation of gay rights group LGB Alliance (who had the audacity to say lesbians have the right to self-organise and to be concerned about the seemingly systematic castration/sterilisation/ medicalisation of gay boys). Today (13 October in NZ) a Tory MP asked in Parliament whether there should be a criminal investigation into the charity and UK PM Liz Truss appears to agree. As a staunch left leaning feminist, it’s a weird dissonance for me that the right wing party is the one being grown up about protecting children.
Our Ministry of Health meanwhile has been advised by multiple people) that their website still has links to Mermaids, and they have been alerted to situation in the UK just in case they’d missed it. I was one of those people and I got acknowledgement between 5 and 6 yesterday evening that it had been passed on to the right team to deal with. Almost 24 hours later the link, to a group with apparent pedophilic associatiion, is still up on our government’s website. So it goes on.
A worthwhile aside about PATHA. PATHA is the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa. They’re important because Ministry of Health defers to their guidelines when making statements about gender-related issues. While it claims to lobby for evidence-based transgender care it adheres to a rigid approach to transgender issues based on self-identification and gender-affirming care. For example its 2022 vision states of a proposed transgender healthcare hub within NZ’s new health authorities “This new hub should aim to achieve full access to person-centred gender affirming healthcare for all transgender people, regardless of their location, and promote transgender cultural safety and awareness within the wider healthcare system”. This is ideologically-based not evidence-based. There is plenty of evidence that challenges the benefits of gender-affirming care. PATHA’s guidelines in turn refer to the WPATH guidelines (World Professional Association for Transgender Health), while PATHA refers directly to an older set of guidelines it’s worth remembering the 2022 WPATH guidelines have removed any recommended minimum age for any “gender-affirming” surgery or medical intervention. It also includes eunuch (castrated males) as a valid gender under advice from fetish groups.
Really great piece! Thank you!
sometimes i honestly feel as if my head will explode. this stuff is so insanely evil and dangerous.