GPs face legal risks over hormones for teens
The Australian 5 August 2021
GPs have been warned they may face disciplinary action or law suits if they give cross-sex hormone drugs to transgender-identifying minors.
Protesting long waits for specialist gender clinics, trans health advocates have promoted the US-style “informed consent” model as a fast-track to hormonal treatment not requiring expert diagnosis of the distressful condition gender dysphoria.
But GPs are being misled about the law, which demands a formal diagnosis and a multidisciplinary treatment team with specialists before 16 and 17-year-olds can be given these hormone drugs carrying a risk of infertility, according to University of Queensland legal academic Patrick Parkinson and senior psychiatrist Philip Morris.
“It is important that the medical profession understands these constraints because incorrect advice on the legal requirements has been circulating within the profession,” they write in the Medical Journal of Australia’s Insight magazine.
“In no circumstances should a medical practitioner initiate ‘gender-affirming’ treatment for adolescents under 18 years of age without a proper diagnosis and multidisciplinary assessment of gender dysphoria (justifying hormonal treatment).”
GPs who ignore this warning face a risk of disciplinary action by health regulators or litigation by patients who come to regret treatment, Professor Parkinson says.
His MJA Insight article targets the award-winning TransHub website, which has claimed “any GP is able to prescribe gender affirming hormonal therapy for most people aged 16 and above, without requiring approval from a mental health professional or endocrinologist”.
READ MORE: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/gps-face-legal-risks-over-hormones-for-teens/news-story/48fb126c635851697eac089e416c8f6e
