Summary

Two clinicians at England's former national youth gender clinic (GIDS) looked back over 18 months of their own cases. They describe teenagers whose gender distress began in adolescence and who, after a longer assessment, no longer wanted puberty blockers (drugs that pause puberty) or hormones. They found 12 such young people out of 128 cases (9.4%). Most were girls, many were autistic, and many were self-harming or suicidal. Two case stories show how bullying, homophobia, family breakdown and distress about puberty came to be seen differently over time. The authors argue that assessment should allow unhurried exploration, while noting that many others do go on to medical treatment. It is a small case review by the treating clinicians, with no comparison group, no standard measurements and no long-term follow-up. It shows one path, but not how common it is or what caused the change.

Key findings

• Les deux auteurs ont examiné tous les adolescents (12 ans et plus) qu'ils ont évalués au GIDS entre octobre 2015 et avril 2017 : 156 cas, ramenés à 128 après exclusion de certains.
• 12 des 128 (9,4 %) avaient une détresse de genre apparue à l'adolescence, avaient demandé un traitement médical au départ et ont cessé de le souhaiter pendant l'évaluation.
• Sur ces 12, sept se sont sentis à l'aise avec leur sexe de naissance, tandis que cinq s'identifiaient encore comme trans mais ne voulaient plus d'hormones.
• La plupart étaient des filles (9 sur 12), âgées de 12 à 16 ans (14 en moyenne). 7 avaient déjà un diagnostic d'autisme, 7 avaient récemment pensé au suicide, 7 s'étaient automutilés et 2 avaient récemment fait une tentative de suicide.
• La plupart n'avaient pas fait de transition sociale (7 sur 12), et la plupart n'avaient pas de diagnostic formel de dysphorie de genre de la part de la personne qui les avait adressés (9 sur 12).
• Les évaluations étaient plus longues que les 3 à 6 séances habituelles de la clinique : en moyenne 6,6 séances sur 9,6 mois, surtout avec la famille.
• Deux histoires de cas, un garçon autiste de 14 ans et une fille autiste de 14 ans avec un antécédent de trouble alimentaire, décrivent une détresse que l'on en est venu à comprendre en termes de harcèlement, d'homophobie, d'éclatement de la famille et de peur de la puberté.
• Les auteurs appellent à un examen complet des dossiers de toute la clinique et à des recherches à long terme, et disent que le traitement médical aide encore certains jeunes.

Abstract

As the number of young people referred to specialist gender identity clinics in the western world increases, there is a need to examine ways of making sense of the range and diversity of their developmental pathways and outcomes. This article presents a joint case review of the authors' caseloads over an 18-month period, to identify and describe those young people who presented to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) with gender dysphoria (GD) emerging in adolescence, and who, during the course of assessment, ceased wishing to pursue medical (hormonal) interventions and/or who arrived at a different understanding of their embodied distress. From the 12 cases identified, 2 case vignettes are presented. Implications for the development of clinical practice, service delivery and research are considered.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the adolescents included in this review met criteria for GD and initially requested medical interventions to resolve their difficulties. Over the course of the psychosocial assessment, they came to understand their distress and its alleviation (at that particular point in time) differently and eventually chose not take a medical (hormonal) pathway and/or identified their gender identity as broadly aligned with their biological sex. Of course, this is not the case for many other young people presenting to the service and it is important to hold onto the multiplicity of possible outcomes. The study highlights the need for the psychosocial assessment to nurture a space in between the internal and external worlds of these young people. Such an assessment would need to be properly located in a developmental framework which takes seriously the inescapable in between-ness of adolescence and joins with young people and their families to broaden the narratives available to them, to make sense of gender-based distress.