Fears for the 50 children a week referred to sex change clinics
CAMPAIGNERS and medics yesterday voiced concerns after it emerged 50 children a week are being sent to gender reassignment doctors because they think they were born in the wrong body.
Figures suggest a record 2,600 youngsters are expected to be referred to Britain’s largest gender clinic this year.
This is based on the 1,302 referrals made in the past six months alone – a 24 per cent increase on the previous six months. If the projection for 2017-18 is met, it will represent a rise of 29 per cent on the total of 2,016 referrals made in 2016-17. By contrast, in 2009-10 there were just 97, while the following year there were 139.
The data from the specialist Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), hosted by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London, shows many referred children were in primary school.
Referrals over the last 18 months included two children aged four, four five-year-olds and 17 children aged six.
Young children sent to the clinic are provided with counselling, and can then be given hormone blockers from the age of 11 to delay puberty. This process, carried out on about 40 per cent of the initial referrals, ‘ buys time’ until the child is mature enough to make a proper decision. If a team of experts agree, oestrogen or testosterone can be taken from the age of 16, which may cause changes such as growth of breast tissue.
Margaret Morrissey, of the campaign group Parents Outloud, said: ‘ Yes, it would be tragic if someone was missed who really needed help. But on the other hand, it would be equally as dangerous if we are sending children down a road that they are really not fully understanding and not realising how long they will be locked into that before they are really old enough to make a decision.’
Simon Calvert, of the Christian Institute, added: ‘Some people may experience gender confusion for a host of complex reasons but you have to ask yourself if the media’s fixation with these issues is causing some children to question their gender identity who may not otherwise have done so. We are already seeing the stories starting to emerge from children who were encouraged to transition by parents and doctors and who are now regretting it.’
Laura Perrins, co- editor of the Conservative Woman website, said: ‘Most parents will be shocked at this increase and worry that this radical agenda is being promoted by the Government and schools causing very young children to question their gender.’
She added: ‘It is dangerous, unacceptable and unfair on children and their families.’
Ashley Grossman, emeritus professor of endocrinology at the University of Oxford, told the Daily Mail that the rise in referrals could be due to ‘increased willingness for children and patients to realise that there is a problem’.
He added: ‘Delaying puberty... can allow time for the child to become older and more clear as to what they really want.
‘However, one remains slightly concerned that much of the fluidity of behaviour in normal children is being misinterpreted as serious gender dysphoria.’
GIDS director Dr Polly Carmichael said there was ‘no single explanation’ for the rise in referrals, adding: ‘But we do know there has been significant progress towards the acceptance and recognition of transgender and gender diverse people in our society.’
The Office for National Statistics recently revealed it was considering making declaring gender optional in the next census to help trans people. And in the summer, the Government announced it wanted to make the process of changing legal gender easier.
Meanwhile gender-neutral uniform policies are now in place in more than 80 mixed-sex schools.
‘Most parents will be shocked’
with people who believe they have been born the wrong sex. But surely sending four-year-olds to ‘gender alignment’ clinics is absurd. How can children so young understand what sexual orientation even is, let alone decide whether they want to change it?