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Characteristics of children and adolescents referred to specialist gender services: a systematic review
  1. Jo Taylor,
  2. Ruth Hall,
  3. Trilby Langton,
  4. Lorna Fraser,
  5. Catherine Elizabeth Hewitt
  1. Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Catherine Elizabeth Hewitt; dohs-gender-research{at}york.ac.uk

Abstract

Background Increasing numbers of children/adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria/incongruence are being referred to specialist gender services. Services and practice guidelines are responding to these changes.

Aim This systematic review examines the numbers and characteristics of children/adolescents (under 18) referred to specialist gender or endocrinology services.

Methods Database searches were performed (April 2022), with results assessed independently by two reviewers. Peer-reviewed articles providing at least birth-registered sex or age at referral were included. Demographic, gender-related, mental health, neurodevelopmental conditions and adverse childhood experience data were extracted. A narrative approach to synthesis was used and where appropriate proportions were combined in a meta-analysis.

Results 143 studies from 131 articles across 17 countries were included. There was a twofold to threefold increase in the number of referrals and a steady increase in birth-registered females being referred. There is inconsistent collection and reporting of key data across many of the studies. Approximately 60% of children/adolescents referred to services had made steps to present themselves in their preferred gender. Just under 50% of studies reported data on depression and/or anxiety and under 20% reported data on other mental health issues and neurodevelopmental conditions. Changes in the characteristics of referrals over time were generally not reported.

Conclusions Services need to capture, assess and respond to the potentially co-occurring complexities of children/adolescents being referred to specialist gender and endocrine services. Agreement on the core characteristics for collection at referral/assessment would help to ensure services are capturing data as well as developing pathways to meet the needs of these children.

PROSPERO registration number CRD42021289659.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable as no datasets were generated and/or analysed for this study.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2023-326681

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    Data availability statement

    Data sharing is not applicable as no datasets were generated and/or analysed for this study.

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    Footnotes

    • Correction notice This paper has been corrected since it was first published. There was a typographical error in the section on neurodevelopmental conditions.

    • Contributors LF, CEH, TL and JT contributed to the conception of this review. LF, RH, CEH and JT contributed to screening and selection. CEH and JT completed data extraction and synthesis and drafted the manuscript. LF, RH, CEH, TL and JT contributed to data and synthesis interpretation. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript prior to submission. CEH accepts full responsibility for the finished work and/or the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish.

    • Funding This work was funded by NHS England to inform the Cass Review (Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people). The funder and Cass Review team had a role in commissioning the research programme but no role in the study conduct, interpretation or conclusion.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.

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