Testosterone is being prescribed off-label to females who want to appropriate male characteristics due to gender dysphoria. Three times as many females are being issued the synthetic hormone than males.

Despite the drug not being approved for such use, clinicians are getting away with it by using a loop-hole.

Dr Ada Cheung explained the way around it is to say “transgender men are males, and they have a low testosterone level, so they have androgen deficiency, and they don’t have testicles.”

“So, we’ve been able to use the [PBS] indication ‘androgen deficiency due to an established testicular disorder.’ And when I’ve checked this with the PBS, they… have said that this is okay.”

Dr Cheung, who is a University of Melbourne researcher, was lead author of a “Position statement on the hormonal management of adult transgender and gender diverse individuals” published by the MJA in 2019.

That statement says, “For [female] people requiring masculinising hormone therapy for gender dysphoria, we use the authority indication ‘androgen deficiency due to an established testicular disorder’.”

How can you have a testicular disorder if you have never had, or never will have testicles!

It is estimated 1,433 females under the age of 34 are using the drugs despite them not being studied or approved for such use.

The female lead in new patient numbers subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) was most pronounced in the 14-28 age group, according to new data from the federal Department of Health and Aged Care. The figures do not include private prescriptions outside the PBS.

It is possible that the number of females starting testosterone is understated because for some years, trans-identifying biological females have been able to ask for their desired male “gender identity” to overwrite birth sex on their Medicare record, which flows through to PBS data, according to a spokesperson for the federal government agency Services Australia.

There is no provision for the issuing of the drug because of gender dysphoria, it is only allowed for testicular disorders.

Females who take testosterone can suffer increased acne, facial hair growth, mood changes, voice alteration, liver problems, enlarged clitoris, irregular menstrual cycles, low libido, infertility and obesity. Many of these side effects are permanent and irreversible.

The alarming increase of females identifying as males, especially among teenagers has been described as a social contagion. Many practitioners are ignoring or overlooking underlying causes of gender identity confusion such as autism, trauma or depression.

Many girls hate or despise their bodies throughout puberty. It is necessary that girls are encouraged to journey through it and embrace their reality rather than take such drastic measures that inflict permanent harm. Issuing testosterone to perfectly healthy girls guarantees they will become life-long medical patients reliant on more drugs to manage the side-effects of such a destructive drug that was not made for the female body.

It is cruel to lie to these women. Taking drugs will never make them a man. The much kinder thing to do is to support them and give them tools to embrace reality.