Health Professionals, Medical Bodies & Community Orgs Call For Publication Of Guidelines For Gender Affirming Care

Health professionals, medical bodies, and community organisations have signed an open letter calling for the publication of updated clinical Guidelines for Gender Affirming Healthcare in Aotearoa New Zealand, expressing concern that the publication has been delayed.

Health professionals are asking for updated guidance on providing appropriate and safe healthcare to transgender and non-binary patients.

In 2023 Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora contracted the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) to update the 2018 guidelines for gender affirming healthcare. It is standard practice for guidelines to be periodically updated to ensure their content is kept up to date. PATHA submitted the updated guidelines in October 2024 and they followed the standard process for publication of a clinical guideline, and were approved by Te Whatu Ora's National Clinical Governance Group.

“It is frustrating for so much work to have been put into the update of these guidelines by so many experts in this field, only to have them held up at this final stage,” says Dr Rona Carroll, PATHA Vice-President. “The need for this updated guidance is clear and something I hear from health professionals on a daily basis. We just want to be able to publish these guidelines so the clinicians who need them can use them.”

The evidence-based guidelines, which have been peer reviewed by clinicians with expertise in this care from within New Zealand and internationally, cover a wide range of topics relevant to transgender and non-binary health and wellbeing, including new chapters on creating inclusive healthcare environments, non-medical gender affirmation options, and more. The small section within this comprehensive document relating to prescribing puberty blockers aligns with the Ministry of Health’s position statement on this care and supports safe prescribing for young people. The guidelines were due for publication at the end of March 2025.

“We're aware that in the days before publication, an FYI was sent to the Minister and Associate Minister of Health,” says Jennifer Shields, PATHA President. “Less than 24 hours before the date of publication, there was an unnecessary, indefinite and unexplained delay in the publication of these clinical guidelines, we believe due to unprecedented and inappropriate political interference. Delays in releasing these guidelines impacts on the ability to improve healthcare delivery and health outcomes for the transgender and non-binary population.”

Signatories to the open letter, which include medical bodies, health services, rainbow community organisations, and individual practitioners are calling on the government to allow Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora to publish the updated Guidelines for Gender Affirming Healthcare in Aotearoa New Zealand immediately.

© Scoop Media