Rate My Professor Rona Carroll

Dr Rona Carroll is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice at the University of Otago, Wellington, within the Faculty of Medicine. She graduated with an MBChB in 2003 and has been a Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners since 2016. As a general practitioner, Carroll specialises in youth health and transgender health care. She has worked as part of a gender affirming healthcare team in primary care since 2012. Carroll serves as an executive member and past Vice President of the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA). She regularly advises Te Whatu Ora on gender affirming healthcare and led the writing of the Aotearoa Primary Care Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy Initiation Guidelines. In her teaching role, she co-convenes the MBChB fourth-year Primary Health Care and General Practice module and the postgraduate paper GENA 702: Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare. She contributes to transgender healthcare teaching across all year levels of the medical programme.

Carroll's research focuses on gender affirming healthcare, with an emphasis on primary care provision, hormone therapy initiation, sexual and reproductive health, and healthcare experiences of transgender and non-binary communities. Her publications include 'Supportive interactions with primary care doctors are associated with better mental health among transgender people: results of a nationwide survey in Aotearoa/New Zealand' (2022), '"I teach them. I have no choice": experiences of primary care among transgender people in Aotearoa New Zealand' (2022), 'Uptake, experiences and barriers to cervical screening for trans and non-binary people in Aotearoa New Zealand' (2023), 'Fifth year medical students’ education, confidence and learning needs related to healthcare provision for sexual and gender minority patients: a cross-sectional survey' (2022), 'Developing a transgender and non-binary inclusive obstetrics and gynaecology undergraduate medical curriculum in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Where are we at, and where do we need to be?' (2024), 'Primary care gender affirming hormone therapy initiation guidelines: Aotearoa New Zealand guidelines for commencing GAHT for adults in primary care' (2023), and 'Initiation of gender affirming hormone therapy in Wellington, New Zealand over a 5-year period' (2025). Additional works address medical student confidence in sexual minority care, rainbow young people's primary care experiences, and general practice staff challenges in gender diverse healthcare. She has presented on primary care workforce development and hormone therapy at conferences such as the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Conference (2024) and Goodfellow Symposium (2024). Carroll's contributions enhance inclusive practices and education in primary care gender affirming health.