Stop this sterilising of children
Queensland's chief psychiatrist was warned about the government's gender clinic more than two years ago
On notice
The chief psychiatrist for the Australian state of Queensland was warned more than two years ago that children at the government-run gender clinic were at high risk of being made sterile for life, while individual staff could face legal and financial liability for future claims.
Chief psychiatrist Dr John Reilly was told that the “gender-affirming” treatment model of early puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones “has a reasonably high chance of causing resultant permanent sterility in children” at the Queensland Children’s Gender Service (QCGS).
He was also advised in formal correspondence that the use of puberty blockers—given to gender-distressed children as young as 8-14—“may prevent the natural recovery from gender dysphoria that commonly occurs through the course of adolescence”.
The 19 August 2023 letter to Dr Reilly, obtained under Right to Information law, invoked the duty of the office of chief psychiatrist to show leadership in service of “high-quality clinical service provision”.
The letter emailed to him by a fellow psychiatrist, whose name was redacted from documents released to GCN, argued that unless these hormonal treatments were stopped, the Queensland Children’s Hospital and individual QCGS staff could be held liable in future legal claims.
In January 2025, Queensland’s new centre-right Liberal-National Party government paused new hormonal treatment of gender-distressed minors in the public sector, pending an independent review scheduled to report by November 30. There has been no interruption to existing treatment with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones at the QCGS, and new treatment is still available in the private sector.
The psychiatrist’s 2023 letter to Dr Reilly noted his statutory office as chief psychiatrist under the Mental Health Act 2016 and the role of psychiatry at the QCGS to confirm a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and recommend hormonal treatment.
“It is not possible for psychiatry to disavow responsibility for the treatment model provided at the hospital and/or any future consequences that may flow from it due to the pivotal importance of the psychiatric assessment and diagnosis,” the letter said.
Disclosure: An excerpt from the 2023 letter to Dr Reilly
Prohibition: UK Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting extended a ban on puberty blockers last December, saying it was “a scandal” that this medicine “was given to vulnerable young children, without proof that it was safe or effective, or that it had gone through the rigorous safeguards of a clinical trial”
Doubtful consent
The unidentified Australian psychiatrist’s letter to Dr Reilly also raised doubts about whether the Queensland Children’s Gender Service (QCGS) was obtaining truly informed consent, with some parents reportedly giving consent for puberty suppression on behalf of children deemed not yet capable of consenting themselves.
“It is unclear whether those parents providing consent have been adequately informed that it is most likely (95 per cent or thereabouts) that cross-sex hormones will be an almost certain next step and/or that the intervention itself may in fact alter the course of gender dysphoria,” the psychiatrist said.
Although puberty blockers have been promoted as a reversible intervention affording the child time to consider the next step of irreversible cross-sex hormones, international data has shown that the vast majority of patients started on blockers go on to hormones, which are meant to be taken lifelong.
The psychiatrist’s letter noted that the founder of the QCGS, Dr Stephen Stathis, had stated at a July 2023 psychiatry conference that he no longer viewed puberty blockers as merely a “pause”.
The letter urged the chief psychiatrist to bring about a halt to new prescriptions of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones at the QCGS, and to enable an “urgent independent review” of treatment.
In a reply sent on 21 September 2023, Dr Reilly said the “most appropriate forum” for responding to the psychiatrist’s concerns was a proposed review by Children’s Health Queensland, the government entity responsible for the QCGS, although he said he did not know the scope or timing of the review.
That review, which reported to Queensland’s then centre-left Labor government in 2024, was criticised as inadequate, hence the further review announced by the current administration in January 2025.
GCN sought comment from Dr Reilly
It is good to see. These doctors and parents have unleashed a storm but will reap the whirlwind of being held to account as children grow up and realise they are forever changed and sterile. It is all so sad. There has been enough damage done. The detransitioners like Chloe Cole and Mel show that this is a failed experiment that had no ethical boundaries.
I reference a very lengthy document (readily accessible on the internet) titled:
‘Overview of President Trump’s Executive Actions Impacting LGBTQ+ Health. Published Sept 25, 2025’
I cite a fragment of that document that sets the tone:
“Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation:
Purpose: Order directs agencies and programs to work toward significantly limiting access to gender affirming care for young people (defined as those under age 19) nationwide”.
. . . .Say/think what you will of President Trump, yet how we would rejoice if we were to find a senior politician in Australia with a hint of such insight and conviction!