Decision-making by Australian hospital multidisciplinary teams regarding treatment of children with innate variations of sex characteristics, 2018-2023

Earlier this year, Equality Australia commissioned InterAction's Dr Morgan Carpenter to review and analyse materials generated as a result of their freedom of information requests to major children’s hospitals in Australia working with families of children with innate variations of sex characteristics.

Following the review Dr Carpenter prepared a report, titled: “Decision-making by Australian hospital multidisciplinary teams regarding treatment of children with innate variations of sex characteristics, 2018-2023: An analysis of redacted information produced by Freedom of Information requests”.

The materials are redacted at source to protect the privacy of children with innate variations and their families, but they provide vital and troubling insights into current clinical practices. While the documents are dated from 2018-2023, many of the children treated in this period are still patients in the paediatric hospital system. Dr Carpenter comments:

Clinicians in this field have asserted that adults who complain received “obsolete treatments”, and their techniques have changed. I analysed recent records of team discussions in children’s hospitals for Equality Australia. Many of the children whose treatment is discussed are still being treated in paediatric hospitals. The information disclosed is troubling and often distressing. Children with intersex variations are still not being treated in line with community expectations and human rights standards. Without accountability and deterrents this will not change.

We thank Dr Carpenter for his dedicated work in producing this report and his passion for improving the health and human rights for people with innate variations of sex characteristics. We thank Equality Australia for their work over three years in securing the source information.

Along with the two other expert reviews of the FOI documents, Dr Carpenter’s report was drawn upon in the development of Equality Australia’s report ‘The Missing Voice: a thematic analysis and stories of ongoing medical interventions on intersex children in Australia’.

Read Dr Morgan Carpenter's report

Read or download Dr Carpenter's expert review report below.

Read all the reports

Read all the reports on the InterAction site

Read the full set of reports on the Equality Australia site

Documents released under Freedom of Information legislation

These documents, redacted at source, are available on the Equality Australia website.