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EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told critics of a law restricting health care for transgender youth Wednesday they need to read up on puberty, while Alberta doctors say she’s being condescending.
Smith has defended the law that prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers for those under 16, saying the drugs permanently sterilize children.
“I encourage you to look up what puberty is,” she said to reporters in Edmonton.
“Puberty is the process a child goes through to become sexually mature so they can have babies. Puberty blockers, by very definition, stops that process.”
The Alberta Medical Association is pushing back, saying Smith needs to do her own research.
“(Puberty blockers) don’t render a person infertile or sterile. That is not true,” said Dr. Sam Wong, president of the association’s pediatrics section.
“To say that they’re sterile is a gross overstatement, because you would never say that a six-year-old is sterile because they can’t have children … maybe (Smith) should get her facts straight … be less condescending.”
Wong said he’s surprised the premier made the claim again Wednesday, because she has been corrected before.
“It’s such a falsehood and misnomer. It’s quite incredible that she can get away with saying that … I don’t know where she’s getting her medical information from, but the way she’s stating it is not true.”
On Saturday, Smith told her call-in radio audience that a decision hasn’t yet been made on using the notwithstanding clause.
“Puberty blockers, by definition, stop the process of sexual maturity and it means that you’re sterilizing children, and we’re not going to do it.”
Smith was also unequivocal Monday when she told CBC that puberty blockers amount to sterilization.
“When you give puberty blockers to a child who’s not gone through puberty, they don’t become sexually mature, which means they can’t have children. And we just happen to be of the view that those are decisions that are made when you’re a grown-up,” she said.
“There is a difference of opinion on this. And when you have a difference of opinion, then you litigate it out. But in the end, I believe in parliamentary supremacy, and that means that politicians do get to have the final say.”
The premier has said her United Conservative Party government is prepared to defend its law in court and she’s willing to use the notwithstanding clause to override Charter rights.
Doctors and national medical associations have said since Smith announced her intentions a year ago that puberty blockers temporarily pause biological changes, which can be restarted once their use is discontinued.
“We have used them for decades, and people who have gone on puberty blockers have gone on to have children later on,” Wong said.
With gender-affirming care, he said, puberty blockers can be used by children experiencing gender dysmorphia until they’re ready to undergo biological puberty or pursue hormone therapy. That therapy is considered “partially reversible,” because over time it results in both reversible and irreversible changes.
Puberty blockers are also commonly used in abnormal cases involving early puberty, said Wong.
Alberta’s law doesn’t restrict cisgender youth, who identify with their assigned sex at birth, from puberty blockers or hormone therapy to treat conditions such as precocious, or unusually early puberty.
Neelam Punjani, a nurse and assistant professor at the University of Alberta, said the premier should be careful about spreading inaccurate information because it creates fear and stress.
“As a nurse working closely with children, adolescents and family, I recognize how confusing and emotionally charged conversations around puberty blockers can be and, too often misinformation dominates public discourse,” she said.
“The most common concern that we are hearing is the idea puberty blockers make children sterile. And this is not accurate.”
She said puberty blockers are critical to the mental well-being of youth experiencing gender dysmorphia.
“Their primary purpose is to give young people some time to explore their identity, access counselling and make proper decisions about the next steps.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2025.
Lisa Johnson and Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
