Aims: To retrospectively examine clinical health records to investigate the characteristics and outcomes of children and young people who first attended specialist gender services aged ≤13 years in the UK and the Netherlands across a seven-year period (2009–2016). Methods: Routinely collected outcome measures and clinical data were examined, including gender dysphoria diagnosis, social transition, referral to endocrine services and emotional and behavioural functioning. Results: Similar proportions of children and young people fulfilled criteria for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and had either fully or partially socially transitioned prior to accessing the services in the UK and the Netherlands. Differences were observed in relation to the proportion of children and young people referred to endocrine services, with a higher proportion reported in the Netherlands. Conclusions: In both services, children and young people who had socially transitioned (fully or partially) prior to attending the service were more likely to receive a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and to be referred to endocrine services.
Plain language summary
This study retrospectively examined the characteristics of children and young people aged 3–13 years who were referred to gender clinics in the UK and the Netherlands between 2009 and 2016. For both cohorts, the likelihood of meeting the criteria for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria was associated with social transition status, whereby those who had undergone full or partial social transition were more likely to meet these criteria than those who had not transitioned. Data from both the UK and Dutch clinics also reflected that social transition status, age, and year of referral were associated with the likelihood of being referred for endocrine treatment. For the UK cohort only, the likelihood of endocrine referral was also associated with birth-registered sex and number of siblings. Higher rates of endocrine referrals were observed in the Netherlands compared to the UK.
