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| Gender Reassignment Health Services for Trans People within New Zealand | Download |
These guidelines were the first in New Zealand to recommend puberty blockers. The guidelines describe blockers as “fully reversible” but that is meant in the sense that “puberty will restart when the injections are stopped”. The guidelines muddy this by stating that “[a]lthough GnRH analogues are classed as a reversible treatment and return of fertility is highly likely it cannot be guaranteed.” (p. 33).
The guidelines are also contradictory on standards of consent for blockers. In one part blockers are “low risk and do not have such a high standard of consent.” (p. 7), but in another “[a] high standard of consent is still recommended.” (p. 33).
Importantly, the guidelines note that “about three quarters” of children that have gender issues such as claiming to be in the wrong body “will not be trans adults”. (p. 20). That most children grow out of gender-related distress disappears from later guidelines.