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# New Zealand to ban puberty blockers for trans youth
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/new-zealand-to-ban-puberty-blockers-for-trans-youth/
- Published: 2025-11-24T13:01:34.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T13:01:34.000Z
- Author: Graham Robson
- Tags: News

**New Zealand** will prohibit new prescriptions of puberty blockers for trans young people from **19 December**, aligning its policy with recent restrictions in the UK. Health Minister **Simeon Brown** announced that doctors will no longer prescribe gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues for gender dysphoria or incongruence to new patients, citing a lack of “high-quality evidence” on long-term safety and effectiveness.

The drugs will remain available for those already receiving treatment and for other medical conditions such as early-onset puberty, endometriosis and prostate cancer. According to the **Ministry of Health**, 113 people were using puberty blockers in 2023, down from 140 in 2021.

Brown said the move was a “precautionary approach” intended to ensure treatments are “clinically sound and in the best interests of the child.” The ban will stay in place until the results of a UK clinical trial, expected in 2031, are published.

The decision has sparked strong criticism from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and medical professionals. The **Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa** (PATHA) warned the ban could lead to “worsening mental health, increased suicidality and dysphoria” among gender-diverse youth, calling the policy “ideologically driven” and harmful to an already vulnerable population.

The announcement comes amid a global debate over gender-affirming care for minors, with similar restrictions introduced in the UK following the controversial **Cass Review**.