British children are 50 times more likely to suffer from ‘gender distress’ than ten years ago, a new NHS study has revealed.
Analysis of NHS GP records showed that in 2011 just 200 people under the age of 18 identified as transgender or struggled with gender dysphoria, this is compared with more than 10,000 in 2021.
This is a massive jump from around from 1 in 60,000 under 18s in 2011 to 1 in 1200 in 2021.
A team at the University of York also discovered that since 2015 there has been a much faster growing trend of girls wanting to identify as boys.
As well as the fact that those who question their gender are more likely to have autism or mental health problems.
The research, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, did not examine the causes of the increase.
However, the author Professor Tim Doran argued that the increase in use of social media, as well as worsening mental health in children.
Only 13 percent of those who described themselves with gender dysphoria went on to received puberty blockers and other medications.
In a meeting with MPs on Wednesday, top hormone doctor Professor Ashley Grossman, from Oxford University, warned of a ‘conveyor belt’ towards trans ideology.
He told the Health and Social Care Committee: ‘Adolescence and childhood is quite a difficult time and highly confusing for a lot of children.
‘My concern is that we’re not adequately assessing the probably much larger number who, with adequate counselling and psychological support, would eventually decide they wanted to stay cisgender.’
In December last year puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria were banned in the UK, the Department of Health and Social Care announced, following official advice from medical experts.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said there is a need to ‘act with caution’ and ‘follow the expert advice’ in caring for this ‘vulnerable group of young people’.
‘Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people,’ he said.
Dr Hilary Cass, who wrote the Cass Review into children’s gender care and published her final report in April, described puberty blockers as ‘powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks’.
She said: ‘That is why I recommended that they should only be prescribed following a multi-disciplinary assessment and within a research protocol.
‘I support the Government’s decision to continue restrictions on the dispensing of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria outside the NHS where these essential safeguards are not being provided.’