Sue Bagshaw

Dame Susan Nicola Bagshaw (née Dean, born 30 September 1949) is a New Zealand doctor specialising in the health needs of young people.

Professional career She moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, in the early 1980s. She initially worked for the Family Planning Association to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services for young women by expanding the number of clinics in the South Island. However she found that young people were too embarrassed or shy to attend the clinics and instead she designed a "one-stop shop" model, which provided a range of health services in one place. The centre closed in 2010 due to a lack of funding. In 2012 she opened a replacement youth hub in Barbadoes Street, which brought together 16 youth organisations in one facility.

Bagshaw is a senior lecturer in paediatrics at the University of Otago in Christchurch and is the chair of the Korowai Youth Well-Being Trust and a trustee for the Collaborative for Research and Training in Youth Health and Development, which she founded. She serves on the board of the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust. In April 2024, Bagshaw maintained that puberty blockers were "safe and reversible" despite the Ministry of Health removing a claim that they were "safe and reversible" from its website last year. She said that "most kids know what they want, most kids know what they are. And that's confirmed with time, so they do carry on with the hormones." She regarded opposition to puberty blockers as a "moral panic".

In November 2025, Bagshaw criticised the New Zealand Government's decision to suspend the issuing of puberty blockers to new clients pending a major British clinical review due in 2031. She argued that puberty blockers were safe and warned against "moral panics".

Recognition Bagshaw is Fellow of the Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine (FRACShM) of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (FRNZCGP).

In the 2002 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM), for services to youth health.

Personal life Bagshaw is married to Phil Bagshaw, who she met at medical school in London. Together they have four children. Her son Andrew, who lived in the United Kingdom, was killed in Ukraine in 2023 while doing voluntary humanitarian work during the Russo-Ukrainian War. On 14 August 2023, The Quiet Hero, a book about the Bagshaws' son, was released.

Publications Bagshaw co-authored Calming Your Child, De-escalating Tantrums, Anxiety, Aggression and Other Challenging Behaviours in 2022. Writing of the book, Bagshaw noted the need to understand children's behaviours from their perspective, suggesting "a tantrum might be due to the child being scared, distressed or overwhelmed and when we understand the 'why' behind the behaviour, we can look at techniques to address it."