A groundbreaking long-term study on whether chidlren and young people presenting with gender incongruence continue with their sex transition into adulthood is providing the very data not made available to Dr Hilary Cass’s research team by 6 out of the 7 NHS Gender Identity Clinics Services (GIDS) for children and young people.
Such data may actually be non-existent as the UK ‘gender affirming’ clinicians seemed to have failed to keep accurate medical records of their patients or may have chosen not to carry out any follow-up to their patients’ journey for ideological reasons.
This is the reason why, crucially, part of Dr Cass’s report list of recommendations includes the following:
Recommendation 18: The national infrastructure should be put in place to manage data collection and audit and this should be used to drive continuous quality improvement and research in an active learning environment.
The long-term study was carried out in Germany between 2013 and 2022 where individuals typically keep their medical records for extended periods. It is based on data of a comprehensive collection of outpatient insurance billing data for all legally insured persons – including children and young people – presenting with gender dysphoria.
The researchers noted a dramatic rise in the number of young people presenting with gender dysphoria over the period of the study, from 22.5 cases per 100,000 insured young people in 2013 rising to 175.7 ases by 2022, thus representing an increase of nearly 681%.
Confirming Dr Cass’s findings, the study highlighted that in almost all years, the highest prevalence of gender dysphoria was found in 15 to 19 year old females. By 2022, females aged 15 and 19 represented the highest overall rate of increase.
Again, confirming Dr Cass’s Review findings, the majority of individuals presenting with gender dysphoria had at least one mental health issue. This included depression, affecting 57.5% of females and 49.3% of males, anxiety disorders affecting 34% of females and 23,5% of males, borderline personalitydisorders, attention /hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).
In addition, a specific German coding system ( OPS code ) tracking gender related surgeries for chidlren and teenagers showed that such interventions were quite rare.
In their interpretation of the data, the authors of the study emphasized that the proportion of unstable diagnoses was within the range of previously published international figures with past desistance research confirmed that their results were plausible.
The researchers highlighted the ” fluid” nature of gender dysphoria during childhood and adolescence as a likely reason for the high desistance rates.
They suggested that many young people actually do resolve their feeling of gender incongruence with gender adjusting talking therapy and without therefore the need for long term medicalisation such as the use of puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
This study supports a growing body of research showing that gender dissatisfaction during childhood and adolescence is often temporary and tends to decline with age.
It also aligns with recent findings from a long term Duth study which found that most adolescents who expressed a desire to be of the opposite sex no longer felt that way in adulthood.
Where does the Green Party stand on these findings? and when can members expect to have an official response to Dr Cass Review report?
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The Green Light 