John Cameron: GP on the Government halting the prescription of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria

A registered GP has concerns about the issue of puberty blockers being handled by politicians.

No child or young person experiencing gender dysphoria or incongruence will be able to start taking gonadotropin-releasing hormones from December 19. 

Health Minister Simeon Brown says Cabinet has agreed to new settings until the outcomes of a major clinical trial in the UK – expected in 2031.   

Dr John Cameron told Mike Hosking he commends the move but is unsure about the motivations.  

He believes it has been made on health grounds, but still thinks it needs to leave the political arena.  

Cameron says the safety of puberty blockers has been a topic of discussion in medical circles for a long time.  

He told Hosking, if they weren't safe, they would be banned across the board.  

But he says there is uncertainty on their long-term safety and effectiveness. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Like yesterday the Health Minister tells us they're pausing the
prescription for puberty blockers. They're concerned about long term impacts
existing patients, so we'll continue. The changes come into effect
December nineteen. Doctor John Cameron registered gp is with us
John morning as an issue you know and all the
things a GP might deal within any given day. Where
does puberty blockers sit.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
It's a very small part of our life. I probably
would have maybe one client who's approached me over the
last twelve months for these sort of medicines.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah, and if I round up one hundred GPS, do
I get a range of views from GPS on their
view of them?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
If you've got one hundred GPS, you've got two hundred opinions.
It's a normal way of life, mate.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Where's this decision come from?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
This?

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Is this an out of the blue type thing or not?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
No, no, no. It's been a discussion in medical circles
for a long period of time. A major thing was
what's called the Test Report that came out of the
UK last year, where it was questioned about what was
going to be the long term health outcomes from puberty blockers. Now,
puberty blockers are not gender reidentification medicines, so they don't

(01:07):
turn male into female, female into male. All they do
is hold you in a pre pubertal state, so that
if and when you decide to change your gender, you're
not having to go back against the eight ball of
all the changes that would have occurred. Plus also gets
you through the hormonal turmoil of having hormones doing one
thing with your brain saying no, I'm a completely different gender.

(01:30):
So you've got to put it into that perspective for
a start. The problem that we've got is that yesaper
to be absolutely safe. If they weren't safe, we would
be stopping all access to these medicines. But as you said,
people who are on these medicines already will still be
able to carry on. What we don't know is we
just don't have enough evidence for long term safety and effectiveness.

(01:50):
So we're talking twenty thirty forty years because we're starting
these medicines and children of nine years of age. Now,
I would hope that the decision has been made on
health grounds, and I do believe it has been made
on health grounds rather than political ground. So we've got
to get it out of the political arena and put
it back into health where it should be.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
That was my very next question. Do you think it's ideological?
And as if it is ideological, if a change of
government comes next year, we flip back and I'm getting
you on with another conversation.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I doubt it that this has been in big discussion,
and the problem with any discussion means and you get
completely polarized it views. So you get the proponents on
this side and the anties on this site, and it's
really hard to work where that middle ground should be.
I think putting a hold on it at the stage
medically is probably a good idea. It does not mean

(02:36):
that we're going to stop caring for these individuals. It
means that one of the tools that we have been
using we're going to put into the back pocket and
hold off unless we get really into a very dire situation.
We should be doing this in primary care, in conjunction
with secondary care, in conjunction with psychiatry, psychology, and chronology.
It's a team approach to this, and that doesn't mean

(02:57):
we're leaving the young people out to hang things that
we will have to do to work with them. We've
got other tools to use. It's just this one's been
put into the back pocket.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Good stuff, John Good, and so I appreciate it. Doctor
John Cameron registered GP with us this morning. For more
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