This article contains references to suicide and self-harm.
Victorian teenager Chris* loves art, drawing, and his friends — and in many ways, he's much happier than he used to be.
The now 16-year-old seriously struggled with his mental health between ages eight and 10: he had gone from performing well academically to failing at school and was "really depressed", his mum Naomi* recalls.
The pair have been given pseudonyms to protect their identities.
When a schoolmate's parent shared with an already worried Naomi and her husband that Chris had expressed suicidal ideation, they asked him what was really going on.
Chris, who was assigned female at birth, told them: "I'm a boy."
Sharing he was transgender and wanted to transition socially and medically was a huge moment that not only explained his distress but potentially saved his life, Naomi says.
After a multi-appointment process, Chris was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and started puberty blockers at age 11.
This delayed the onset of female puberty and improved his mental health significantly, according to his mum.
"To be honest, I look back and I do think to myself, I'm not sure whether he would've made it, going through a female puberty, he was so dysphoric about who he was that that was actually really important," Naomi says.
Two years ago, Chris started taking testosterone — the primary male hormone — which he says "felt really good to start on".
"With testosterone, I noticed a lot of emotional changes, kind of just mood-wise and physically and everything. I think it was just kind of maturing a bit as well," he says.
I think transitioning in general, I became more confident in myself and especially starting testosterone, built up that confidence of just accepting myself more.Chris*
Chris says he encourages people not to judge a book by its cover.
"If you have this idea of who trans people are or what they look like, don't just take the first thought that you have and actually look into who people are — trans people are just regular people and have regular lives," he says.
Protesters at a rally calling for the reversal of Queensland's decision to pause puberty blocker and hormone prescriptions to new public health patients under 18. Source: Getty / SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket
Political backlash
Chris and Naomi are keen to share their experience of navigating gender-affirming healthcare because they believe misinformation has a highly negative impact on trans people and their families.
The topic has been subject to public debate in Australia since late January when Health Minister Mark Butler to be led by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
The review will not impact care currently received by Australian youth but it did cause panic for some trans people, including Chris, who felt uncertain about whether they would be able to continue accessing treatment.
The announcement has been welcomed by some LGBTIQ+ groups, including LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, which said the review had been requested by clinicians and would provide an opportunity to create new national guidelines.
Others have expressed scepticism, including activist collective Pride in Protest, which said it was "naivete" to think the review would be about supporting trans people, and that it was "indulging the far-right".
In 2020, the government rejected calls to commission an inquiry into gender-affirming care because it feared causing "negative mental health impacts", referring to advice provided by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, which warned an inquiry would not increase scientific evidence and would further harm vulnerable patients.
On 28 January, two days before Butler's announcement, the Queensland government immediately for any new patients under 18, while beginning an investigation into care provided in the state.
The decision by the newly-elected Liberal government follows reports that gender-affirming hormones had been given to minors as young as 12 years of age without authorised care in Queensland's Far North.
Rallies were held around the country last weekend in opposition to the pause in care.
Anti-trans campaigners including former prime minister Tony Abbott responded to the Queensland announcement by saying gender-affirming care should be banned completely and immediately.
Last week's rally in front of the Victoria State Library in Melbourne aimed to pressure the Queensland government to overturn the policy and uphold the rights of trans youth. Source: Getty / SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket
Members of the community have expressed distress and concern that transphobic rhetoric in the United States — adopted and exacerbated by President Donald Trump, who has vowed to end federal funding for gender-affirming care — is leading to an increase in hate speech in Australia.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said he would consider following Trump and banning transgender women from sports, and earlier this week, 18 of his senators voted in support of One Nation senator Pauline Hanson's call for a parliamentary inquiry into the "human cost of experimental child gender treatments".
Accessing gender-affirming healthcare
For Chris, affirming his gender in the short term meant getting a haircut and changing his name and pronouns.
That helped him become proud to say, "This is who I am," his mum says.
"I remember a teacher said to me, 'I dunno what's happened and I don't really get this trans stuff, but as a teacher, he's gone from sitting at the back of the class, not engaged, to the front of the class, top of the class, excelling, confident.'"
Naomi is a health professional who works with trans and gender-diverse kids, but she says there were still a lot of unexpected moments for her family.
"It's very different when it's your own child," Naomi says.
I said to him, 'Look, I'm here to learn with you and figure out what you need'.Naomi*
Chris was lucky to not have to wait long for his initial series of appointments and tests with Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital (RMCH). Some children seeking gender-affirming care can face wait times of several months up to several years.
He met with psychologists — who he now has appointments with every three months — a psychiatrist and was also connected with counsellors in his area.
Naomi acknowledges that even though they were "privileged" to access healthcare for their son, there were moments that felt "invasive".
Advocates argue gender-affirming care is medically necessary and life-saving for trans youth. Source: Getty / SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket
In Australia gender-affirming care is administered by the states and territories, which each have their own guidelines — although those written by the NHMRC in 2018 have been endorsed by government bodies.
The guidelines recommend puberty blockers be provided by specialist hospital-based teams. The injections are not subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme unless prescribed for the treatment of early-onset puberty or certain cancers.
Young people can then be approved to access oestrogen or testosterone to feminise or masculinise the body.
The guidelines advise against gender-affirming surgery for people under 18, although they acknowledge that surgery to remove breast tissue may be appropriate in rare cases for people over 16.
Teens in 'crisis'
Jeremy Wiggins is the outgoing CEO of Transcend Australia, a nationally-led, community-funded organisation providing support for trans youth and families.
He has welcomed the government's process of engaging NHMRC to review and develop new guidelines.
However, he says young people are feeling "unfairly targeted and unsupported by political leaders", particularly in Queensland, as a result of the decision to pause care for new patients.
"Those children and young people, from what I'm told from families, their mental health has deteriorated significantly to the point where some of them are currently contemplating suicide," he said.
That's the crisis that we're in.Jeremy Wiggins, CEO, Transcend Australia
According to Wiggins, there has been a significant increase in transphobic rhetoric and violence in Australian schools over the last few years, and Transcend has received reports of teachers making transphobic remarks or preventing trans children from attending camps.
"Whenever there is media [coverage] that focuses on young people that promotes the voices of anti-trans activists, who are deliberately spreading disinformation, that has a direct impact on bullying and harassment in schools, on trans people and trans young people the very next day," he said.
"This media is being broadcast to homes and workplaces across the country, and people, average Australians, are being misled by this."
Queensland's Open Doors Youth Service, a youth homelessness and support organisation for the LGBTIQAP+ community, published statements written by trans youth in response to the state government halting treatment for new patients.
"I'm a 17-year-old and started T [testosterone] just before my 16th birthday," one student wrote.
"I'm usually great at sleeping but I keep waking up in the night stressing that they will take away my testosterone too and that so many trans kids are going to die."
I feel like they would rather kids be dead than be trans and that's the most terrifying part of all this.
SBS News spoke with the mother of a 15-year-old trans boy, who has requested anonymity over fears for his safety.
She says her son is set to start testosterone in Melbourne this year, having already met with RMCH, but adds the current public debate about gender-affirming care is having an effect on him.
"[He is] definitely affected by all the noise that happens outside of our little bubble," she says.
"It impacts him more, I think, than probably what he actually tells us and what he lets on to us."
Her son came out two years ago at a point where his mental health was "really bad" and he was self-harming.
"He was holding so much in before it came out to us. So as parents, we had no idea, I suppose, where to go or what to do or how to navigate all that early on in the piece."
She and her husband found medical professionals and support groups to connect, and their son legally changed his name.
Now, he's really excited to start testosterone and experience a similar male puberty to his friends, but his parents are still worried about him.
"You worry about your kids anyway, and also, we've got a trans kid. I drop him off at a bus stop and I'm eyeing off the people there because I'm like, 'could one of them potentially hurt him?'"
My kid just wants to be a kid. They are the same person they've always been, they just want to be themselves.
High school can be a tricky transitional chapter for any student, but particularly for trans youth.
Chris was in Year 8 when he became the victim of a transphobic physical attack — an experience that awakened him to the dangers of the real world outside his "safe bubble".
Chris says he regularly worries that politicians could decide to take away his access to hormones.
"There's a lot of myths about trans people in general and a lot of negativity around hormone therapy.
"But it's lifesaving — it has such an impact on the wellbeing and mental health of trans people."
*names have been changed.
LGBTIQ+ Australians seeking support with mental health can contact QLife on 1800 184 527 or visit . also has a list of support services.
Intersex Australians seeking support can visit Intersex Peer Support Australia at isupport.org.au.
Readers seeking crisis support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25).
More information and support with mental health is available at and on 1300 22 4636.
