Gender dysphoria diagnoses in children rise fiftyfold in decade

The number of children and young people in England with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria recorded by a GP has risen fiftyfold over 10 years, researchers have found, though numbers are still relatively low.

- Nicola Davis

The growing number of young people registered female at birth seeking referrals to gender clinics has raised concerns in recent years, with tensions over how best to tackle gender dysphoria in children resulting in the Cass review last year.

However, much of the previous work was based on referrals to specialist services rather than capturing the situation in primary care - the first port of call for many seeking help. Now a study by a team that carried out research informing the Cass review has looked at GP records to shed light on trends in the community.

"What we have is the number of children who have ever had a diagnosis of something related to gender dysphoria," said Prof Tim Doran, co-author of the work from the University of York.

Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, Doran and colleagues describe how they examined data relating to children and young people aged 18 and under attending GP practices in England between 2011 and 2021, encompassing 3,782 individuals with gender dysphoria or similar diagnoses.