New Zealander Health Minister Simeon Brown looks on at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on Jan. 28, 2025. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
New Zealand has announced a ban on new prescriptions of puberty-blocking medication for young people with gender dysphoria, aligning the country with similar policy shifts in the UK, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.
The drugs—gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues—will remain available to those who need to take them for conditions with established clinical evidence, including early-onset puberty, endometriosis, or prostate cancer.
