On Wednesday, January 25th, I took part in a BBC Radio 5 Live phone in for Your Call with Nicky Campbell (you can listen again here).

One caller asked a question which, as a cisgender woman, I felt unqualified to answer. As such, I reached out to some members of the trans community who, I felt should be offered the opportunity to address the point.

In negative media coverage of cases involving gender variant children, one statistic seems omnipresent:

‘84% of childhood cases of gender variance do not persist into adult life’.

The number of child counselling sessions about transgender issues and gender dysphoria offered by a national charity has reached a record level in the past year.
Kids as young as 11 have told counsellors they were unhappy with their assigned birth gender or felt their biological sex didn’t match their gender.

Rowan, 17, from Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan, is a transgender female and first approached her GP two years ago but is still waiting to be referred to a gender identity specialist – a process that itself can take two years.

January 1st, 2017 will see ‘being transgender’ declassified as a mental illness in Denmark, a momentous and long-awaited move which will surely put increased pressure on the World Health Organisation (WHO), to remove the diagnosis from its list of mental disorders. (…)

As charities call for NHS to lower age limit of 16 for hormones, parents are taking their children to private clinics for treatment

August 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Harry Benjamin MD. His is not a name that immediately springs to mind in terms of either fame or notoriety. However, he has his place in history, and a remarkable one at that.

The issues around excessive waiting times for transgender patients to be seen on the NHS have been widely publicised. Waiting times of up to a year and more have led many desperate people to take affirmative action, seeking expert support through private clinics. (…)

Last week, members of the transgender community were up in arms about the fact that a controversial psychiatrist, Dr Kenneth Zucker, was to be given a documentary on BBC2 from which to air his views on the treatment of gender variant children (BBC2 Thursday, 9pm This World, Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best.

Poor fitness levels could be a huge risk factor for developing depression, a new study has found.

Analysing data from more than one million people, researchers discovered that people with poor fitness levels had a 75% increased risk of developing the mental health condition.

Concerns have been raised about care for transgender people in Wales – with some waiting up to four years to see a specialist.
Wales currently does not have a Gender Identity Clinic (GIC), so people are referred to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in London.

I am a gender specialist and NHS GP. I set up www.gendergp.com earlier this year to provide free advice to trans adults and parents of children suffering with gender identity disorder, seeking medical support. (…)

September 10th marks World Suicide Prevention Day, a day to reflect and reach out to those people who might be at risk or suffering in silence. Members of the transgender community are particularly vulnerable and awareness days such as this shine a much-needed spotlight on an issue which is rarely acknowledged, let alone discussed.

The event was well attended – double the expectations of the organisers – and the venue was amazing, it was lovely to be in the ‘partially sunny’ Amsterdam, a vibrant and accepting city.

A blog reflecting on a recent article in the Telegraph discussing the topic of sex change regret.

In the article Urologist, Miroslav Djordjevic, who specialises in Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS), talks about his concerns around an increase in “reversal” surgeries among transgender women.

A statement provides guidance on contraceptive choices for transgender and non-binary people and their partners, who are engaging in vaginal sex where there is a risk of pregnancy. Dr Helen Webberley contributed to this article as an author.