The long-running and often bitter debate over medical treatment for young people with gender dysphoria will reach a turning point on Monday with the release by the NHMRC of national clinical guidance on the use of puberty blockers.

It will be interim advice and subject to public consultation, but given its provenance, the NHMRC’s judgement is likely to carry considerable clinical and political weight.

In Queensland, the government has already moved to prevent new patients from accessing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones through its public health services, fuelling accusations that decisions about clinical care were being made by politicians, not doctors and patients.

That, in theory, could be reversed in the wake of Monday’s release.