The British National Health Service (NHS) will conduct autism screenings for all children who identify as transgender, the Telegraph (UK) has reported.
Under new NHS guidance seen by the outlet, every child referred to a gender clinic will be screened for conditions – including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism, learning disabilities, and mental health issues – that may be contributing to their distress.
“Given the high prevalence of neurodiversity identified within this population, all those attending the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service should receive screening for neurodevelopmental conditions,” according to the new specification cited by the newspaper.
A multidisciplinary team of doctors and psychologists will reportedly evaluate eight key aspects of a child’s life, including their sexual orientation, family relationships, and complete medical history.
The guidance follows a review led by Hilary Cass, a retired consultant pediatrician and former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The review into gender services emphasized the importance of viewing distressed children as “whole people” rather than solely through the lens of their gender identity.
She stressed that it is vital for children who identify as transgender to receive treatment for “ordinary” issues such as depression or autism, the report said. Cass linked the rise in teenage girls experiencing gender identity struggles to cases of “undiagnosed autism, which is often missed in adolescent girls”.
Conditions of autism and gender confusion in the UK have surged in recent years, the report noted. Recorded cases of gender-related distress among individuals under 18 rose from 0.14 per 10,000 in 2011 to 4.4 per 10,000 in 2021, driven largely by adolescent girls.
Over the same period, autism diagnoses also increased significantly, with the condition estimated to affect one in 34 children aged 10 to 14 by 2018 – up from roughly one in 2,500 in previous decades.
The NHS guidance noted a previous “reluctance to explore or address” mental health conditions in young people, as gender dysphoria was not classified as such. It emphasized that “identifying and treating” any mental health issues should now be an “integrated part” of their care.
The new guidance follows a UK Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that defined woman based on biological sex rather than gender identity, meaning transgender individuals born male are not legally recognized as women for the purposes of single-sex protections.
This article was originally published by the Daily Telegraph New Zealand.
