Trans Health Research at the 2025 AusPATH Conference

Trans Health Research Group staff, students and collaborators at AusPATH Conference, Nipaluna/Hobart.

Trans Health Research were excited to join over 500 delegates in Nipaluna/Hobart in the last week of November 2025, for the biennial Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH) Conference. With our largest number of delegates attending an AusPATH Conference to date, team members chaired workshops, presented new research findings, and helped lead national conversations on gender-affirming healthcare during the three-day event.

We were incredibly proud of our student researchers–some presenting at a conference for the first time–who confidently took to the stage to share their research findings.

Left: Silver Argentum presenting on rates, desires, and motives for gender-affirming care. Right: Toan Tang presenting on Minoxidil as a treatment for hair loss with testosterone GAHT.

Foster Skewis presented their honours research looking at rates of continuation of gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) in trans adults using the informed consent model of care. Master’s student Silver Argentum shared key survey findings and interview-based research exploring rates, desires, and motives for gender-affirming care.

Top left: Foster Skewis presenting on rates of continuation of gender-affirming hormone therapy. Bottom left: Eli Ward-Smith presenting on genital atrophy with testosterone GAHT. Right: Arden Wong presenting on fat redistribution with GAHT.

PhD students Toan Tang, Arden Wong, and Eli Ward-Smith presented their research on the use of Minoxidil to reduce scalp hair loss with use of testosterone GAHT, fat redistribution with GAHT, and genital atrophy with testosterone GAHT, respectively.

Following his recent PhD completion, Lachie Angus spoke on body composition changes with spironolactone or cyproterone acetate.

Left: Nicola Dean, Teddy Cook, Ada Cheung, and Joe Ball discussing the MSAC application for gender-affirming surgeries. Right: Julian Grace and Michelle Dutton presenting on the efficacy of a trans health training program for GPs.

Additionally, several of our staff members presented across multiple sessions.

Ada Cheung joined Nicola Dean and Teddy Cook to discuss the MSAC application to create Medicare item numbers for gender-affirming surgeries.

Sav Zwickl chaired a workshop on non-clinical support for trans people and a panel focused on the experiences of trans researchers, and presented on key achievements during the first five years of the TRANSform project. They also co-presented with Stevie Lane from Edith Cowan University on experiences of anti-trans rhetoric in the news and social media and mental health.

Alongside Sav, Julian Grace shared their experiences as an early career clinician-researcher on the ‘Trans Researchers in Trans Research’ panel. Julian also chaired a workshop on allied health which included a presentation from Trans Health Research volunteer, Kat Walker, on pelvic health physiotherapy, and co-presented with GP Michelle Dutton on recently published outcomes from the hallmark Victorian state-wide training program for GPs.

Brendan Nolan spoke on the use of subdermal estradiol implants in trans people using estradiol hormone therapy and led a thought-provoking and well attended case discussion workshop.

Importantly too, the AusPATH Conference provided a much-needed opportunity for us all to come together, to reflect on the incredible challenges experienced by our communities and allies this year, and to celebrate our sectors achievements, including the launch of both the AusPATH Standards of Care Version 2 and the Guidelines for Gender Affirming Care in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Lachie Angus and Sav Zwickl with their awards, presented by AusPATH President Ashleigh Lin.

We were also incredibly proud to see two of our early-career researchers recognised for their contributions to trans health research, with Sav Zwickl the recipient of the Best Early Career Researcher Award, and Lachie Angus the recipient of the Best Paper by an Early Career Researcher Award for his publication on the effect of spironolactone and cyproterone acetate on breast growth in trans people.

We’re incredibly grateful to AusPATH for all of their hard work putting together such a fabulous event. We left the Conference with a renewed sense of determination to continue our work to improve trans health and rights, and a profound sense of hope for the future of trans health research and health care in Australia.