The decision to ban new prescriptions for puberty blockers will hurt young people, the NZNO College of Child and Youth Nurses (CCYN) Tapuhitia Ngā Mokopuna Mō Apōpō says.

Minister of Health Simeon Brown yesterday announced a halt to new prescription of GnRH analogues for young transgender people.

CCYN spokesperson Michael Brenndorfer, a Nurse Practitioner with nearly a decade of experience providing gender affirming healthcare to young people, says the College is deeply disappointed and concerned about the decision.

"This will have a negative impact on the mental health of our young people.

"Puberty blockers have been used safely and cautiously internationally for decades to support transgender young people navigate gender dysphoria," he says.

"This sudden political decision to undermine clinical decisions made in consultation with young people and their whānau is deeply concerning. This decision has been made on purely political grounds.

"It is an imported culture war founded on politics from overseas and has nothing to do with health care best practice for children and young people," Michael Brenndorfer says.

Earlier this year the CCYN backed an open letter signed with 13 other health professional bodies in Aotearoa New Zealand, supporting the continued use of puberty blockers for transgender youth.

Michael Brenndorfer says the timing of this decision, the day before the International Transgender Day of Remembrance which remembers the death of transgender people to transphobic acts of violence, "is an additionally cruel aspect to this announcement".

"We call on the Minister of Health to reverse this decision immediately, and to urgently increase mental health support to respond to the unnecessary distress this announcement will have caused to young people and their families," he says.