Doctors’ health advocate Dr Geoff Toogood is withdrawing as a keynote speaker for this year’s RACGP’s national conference, saying he has been abused by online trolls.

The cardiologist was due to address the conference in Adelaide about his battles with major depression and his subsequent work founding the Crazy Socks 4 Docs media campaign aimed at ending the stigma surrounding doctors with mental health conditions.

But he says his health is now starting to suffer once more after being caught in the crossfire of the social media storm about sexism when it emerged that all four of the conference’s keynote speeches would be given by men.

The issue surfaced when Bond University’s Dean of Medicine, Professor Kirsty Forrest, took to Twitter with a photo of a flyer for the event with all four speakers.