Te Manahou Mackay says she started using puberty blockers at age 13-14 after "extensive" discussions with psychiatrists and therapists and nurse practitioners. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
A model who used puberty blockers as a teenager says the government is "cursing an entire generation of young transgender women to social stigma" after it halted new prescriptions of the drug for young people with gender dysphoria.
Te Manahou Mackay says she can't imagine what her life would have been like if she hadn't had that "early intervention" and had to deal with the "lifelong implications" or going through male puberty.
The government is halting new prescriptions of puberty blockers for young people with gender dysphoria, saying "a precautionary approach" is needed while evidence remains uncertain.
The move has provoked strong feelings on both sides of the debate.
The drugs - known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues - would remain available for people already using them for gender dysphoria, as well as for other medical conditions such as early-onset puberty, endometriosis, and prostate cancer.
Mackay said she had started taking them at age 13-14 after "extensive" discussions with psychiatrists and therapists and nurse practitioners.
"They really do make you justify soundness of mind, she said. "It's not something that is just handed out lightly."
Mackay said the nurse practitioner she initially went to to explore her options became "one of the most important people in my life".
She met with psychologists and therapists before starting puberty blockers and decided on it because the drugs were "so reversible".
"If you just stop taking them, everything kind of goes back to baseline. That's within two years, I believe."
Mackay says she can't imagine what her life would have been like had she not had "early intervention" through puberty blockers. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Mackay did that for around a year and a half before "ultimately deciding to go through hormone replacement therapy and transition properly".
Having puberty blockers at that age gave her "an extra amount of time to really think before committing" to hormone replacement therapy, she said.
"To me, this [announcement] is basically cursing an entire generation of young transgender woman to social stigma, to moving through this world and having to deal with so much - I don't have another word for it - violence.
"[Health Minister Simeon Brown] talks about the health implications, but what about the life implications this has on all of these young trans men and women?"
In a statement on Wednesday, Health Minister Simeon Brown said Cabinet had agreed to the new settings until the outcome of a major clinical trial in the United Kingdom, expected in 2031.
Brown said the new rules - which take effect on 19 December - would give families confidence that any treatment was "clinically sound and in the best interests of the young person".
"These changes are about ensuring treatments are safe and carefully managed, while maintaining access to care for those who need it."
Otago University Emeritus professor Charlotte Paul said she supported the extra restrictions, due to "substantial uncertainties" about the harms and benefits of puberty blockers.
"It's not just the uncertainty about the balance of benefits and risks," Paul said. "It's that we don't know enough about the population that we're treating and that we could be harming a lot of kids."
However, Paul said the government's announcement did not give her any confidence about the "care of these young people", and acknowledged young people with gender dysphoria were "distressed".
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
