Despite showing benefits of Puberty Blockers, Queensland Health Independent Review used as justification for ban

The "Independent" Review's own findings don't support the restrictions it's being used to justify.

In July 2025, Queensland Health quietly issued a directive halting all new prescriptions of puberty blockers and also hormone therapy for transgender children and youth in public healthcare. This was issued with no warning and no consultation, leaving families scrambling and those on multi-year-long waitlists in limbo.

Their justification was the treatments are harming children. But read the independent review commissioned by the Queensland Government, released publicly Friday, and a completely different picture emerges.

Their findings?

"low quality preliminary evidence increasingly suggests that PB, when used
appropriately, can alleviate existing gender dysphoric distress which could
otherwise exacerbate during the physical changes of puberty;"
"low quality preliminary evidence increasingly suggests that GAHT, when used appropriately, can alleviate existing gender dysphoric distress and is associated with beneficial psychosocial impacts;"

Their findings point towards not harm, but benefit.

But why was the evidence low quality? That's because they selectively ignored foundational studies by inexcusably limiting their literature review to the past five years. There's no justification in the report for why, but it very conveniently excludes decades of research that established these treatment protocols in the first place. With this artificially narrow scope, they've produced a document that unduly shifts its weight towards that uncertainty, exactly as the Liberal LNP Government wanted.

The report only mentions in passing the harms of being forced to wait 500 days to access care and of not treating. But this doesn't get its own section; there was no systematic review into the effects of not treating transgender patients – only a biased one of treating. You don't get to claim to be doing a balanced analysis of risk-to-benefit when you only rigorously examine one side.

The report, however, dedicates an entire section to detransition and regret; thankfully, it correctly identifies that "regret/desistence rates associated with the use of PB and GAHT in young people appear very low".

"There may be multiple reasons why a person desistsfrom or regrets a medical pathway, but overall, the regret/desistence rates associated with theuse of PB and GAHT in young people appear very low"

But that begs the question, if you can acknowledge that regret is low and that there is harm to children in not treating, then why is none of this addressed? Instead, a whole chunk of the report is dedicated to the Cass Review and political changes in New Zealand in favour of restricting healthcare. This was supposed to be a systematic review of the literature; besides, a trend in politics is not something to be "cautious" about when dealing with the healthcare of children.

To put this all in perspective, the report – specifically engineered by the LNP Government to harm transgender children – still finds low regret, positive evidence from studies in the last 5 years, and harms in not treating.

The Queensland LNP has chosen to use this anyway to extend the ban until 2031.

It's just evil, despicable, vindictive and cruel behaviour targeted at the most vulnerable members of our community – children. The people behind it, particularly Tim Nicholls, deserve an entirely above-board and completely legal democratic community campaign to remove them at the next election. And to burn in hell for gleefully causing suffering to children.

You can let the Queensland Health Minister know what you think by emailing [email protected] or by calling (07) 3638 9100, and also the media contact Torny Miller, 0439 426 196.

If this story has upset you, please reach out to someone for help. For families affected by the Queensland treatment pause, the Queensland Council for LGBTI Health (QC) has support resources available.

If you're in crisis, contact QLife on 1800 184 527 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.