NHS Review: UK Children With Mental Health Problems May Have Been Rushed to ‘Transition’

A landmark review into NHS care for children who say they are suffering from gender confusion has been published, criticising the way children have been put on inappropriate paths to drugs and surgery, and aiming to set out a more “holistic” method of treatment. Dr. Hilary Cass made 32 recommendations in total, finding that evidence for so-called “gender care”—which includes health care professionals simply affirming a child’s chosen gender and allowing young children to take puberty blockers—is “remarkably weak.” The review was commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement in 2020 following a huge rise in the number of children and young people seeking help for issues with their gender in the past few years. In 2021–22, the NHS reported more than 5,000 referrals to the Tavistock gender identity clinic, up from just under 250 who were questioning their gender a decade earlier....