As Queensland embarks on a vital review of hormone therapies for children and young people with gender dysphoria, the Queensland Women’s Action Alliance (QWAA) and the broader Affiliation of Australian Women’s Action Alliances (AAWAA) have delivered a comprehensive, expert-grounded response. Our coordinated effort seeks to ensure government policy and clinical practice truly protect girls and young women—now the majority of those seeking such treatment.
Expert-led submission: centring girls’ voices
QWAA’s submission harnesses the medical, health, and research expertise of our group and the wider AAWAA network. It stands as a serious, evidence-based critique of current clinical norms, confronting assumptions shaped by ideology or commercial interests and foregrounding the unique vulnerabilities and rights of girls. The submission draws on international medical reviews, such as the UK’s Cass Review and the most recent US health review, to highlight gaps in robust, female-specific evidence and ongoing failures in clinical safeguarding for adolescent girls.
Our core message is clear: girls ought not be experimental subjects for interventions with unknown, potentially lifelong consequences. We demand that policy and clinical decisions are built around girls’ best interests—not assumptions or convenience.
Individual voices, collective impact
In addition to the detailed group submission, many individual QWAA members have lodged their own responses. This is a coordinated, determined effort to show government just how deeply women care about this issue. Every individual response is a call for the authorities to listen to those with lived and professional knowledge of girls’ lives, and a reminder that safeguarding young women’s futures demands more than lip-service policy.
Such collective action amplifies our strength: it signals to decision-makers that women are informed, engaged, and unwilling to sit by while experimental medical approaches become normalised for girls under 18.
Why advocacy for girls is essential: A demographic shift that cannot be ignored
There has been a marked increase in adolescent girls presenting to gender clinics. This shift transforms girls from a minority to the majority, demanding policy-makers address the specific psychological, social, and developmental factors at play. Policy must prioritise these unique vulnerabilities—especially with evidence mounting that girls with gender distress may also grapple with body image issues, social media pressures, peer influences, and the persistent impact of misogynistic stereotypes.
Ethical imperatives and safeguards
QWAA emphasises the importance of safeguarding girls’ right to bodily integrity and an open future. Medical interventions with irreversible consequences—loss of fertility, sexual function or altered development—should never be ‘default’ responses. There is no sufficient evidence base justifying these interventions for girls. True informed consent cannot be obtained without comprehensive, sex-specific data on both risks and long-term outcomes—data that is, as yet, missing.
Social trends and the risk of medicalisation
The concurrent rise in adolescent girls seeking medicalised gender-related interventions and their increased online/social media engagement is alarming. Such channels can amplify insecurities, promote narrow identities, and offer overly simplistic solutions to complex life experiences. Girls deserve to explore non-conforming identities without feeling a need to ‘fix’ themselves via medication. Only by challenging these pathologising narratives can girls’ full potential be supported.
The need for sex-specific research and ongoing scrutiny
Policies and clinical protocols have for too long relied on research extrapolated from male or mixed-sex cohorts. Accuracy demands the investment in long-term, sex-stratified research with transparent outcome reporting. Data on adverse events, regret rates, and psychological after-effects must be collected and made public. Health policies must be held accountable for the real-world effects on girls’ lives, especially given the high rates of comorbid mental health challenges in those presenting for treatment.
Key recommendations
- Prioritise non-medical support: Psychological and social support must be the first response for girls with gender-related distress. Medical intervention is not the default or sole solution.
- Mandate sex-specific data collection: Clinical services should collect and report sex-disaggregated outcome data, including adverse effects and regret rates.
- Strengthen safeguards: Mandate independent oversight of all cases involving girls, including multidisciplinary review and transparent auditing.
- Promote media literacy: Equip girls and families with resources to discern the reliability and motives behind online and peer-sourced information.
- Ensure parental and community engagement: Parents and carers must be fully informed, respected and central to decision-making, with policies tailored to address girls’ unique risks.
Holding government to account
QWAA and AAWAA call on the Queensland Government and review panel to place girls’ rights, safety, and wellbeing at the forefront of all decisions related to hormone therapies. This is not a matter of mere process—it is about protecting the futures of Queensland’s girls, ensuring any medical interventions are supported by solid scientific evidence and robust ethical standards.
We will continue to hold decision-makers to account and insist on policy that is courageous, ethical and genuinely oriented towards the flourishing of all young women in our communities.
Read QWAA’s full survey responses, below. We encourage others to use them to help inform their own responses to the survey.
