NHS to Screen Trans Youth for Autism
Amidst ongoing targeted attacks against trans people by the UK government, new NHS guidelines express intent to screen trans kids for autism and ADHD.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
The ongoing war between the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and transgender Britons has abruptly shifted to target neurodivergent people.
The only way for transgender youth to receive an evaluation and treatment for gender dysphoria in the UK is to be referred to a specialty service by a pediatrician or adolescent mental health worker, and new NHS guidance states that every patient referred to a gender clinic must be “screened for neurodevelopmental conditions” like autism and ADHD, according to The Telegraph.
Medical professionals will also evaluate each child’s “mental health, their relationship with their family and their sexual development, including whether they are experiencing same-sex attraction,” though it’s unclear how those factors might relate to gender dysphoria or a desire to socially or medically transition.
While there does seem to be a noteworthy increase in autistic traits among transgender people, ethical scientists say that this information just “reinforces the importance of trans young people with and without autistic traits being availed the same opportunities to access gender-affirming care,” and that “trans young people with autistic traits may have distinct needs and that gender-affirming care may need to be tailored accordingly.” Conversely, many transphobes have suggested that a diagnosis of autism renders an individual incapable of autonomy over their medical care, and should thus disqualify them from medical transition. It’s unclear whether or not the NHS intends to use this data to deny treatment.
This is the latest shot fired by the NHS in their war against the UK’s transgender community, a long and complex saga that first reached a fever pitch in 2022 when Hilary Cass published an interim report that shuttered the doors of the only gender clinic for trans youth in the UK, which was already barely functional. Cass argued (somewhat surprisingly, if you’re aware of the final report she published just over two years later) that a single clinic couldn’t feasibly handle the volume of patients that Tavistock’s GIDS was receiving, and that multiple regional clinics should be opened to address the problem. Since GIDS had over 5,000 patients on their wait list in 2022, with an average wait for first time appointments of just over three years, it’s hard to argue against that point.
After GIDS was shut down, the NHS announced two new clinics would be opened in the northwest and London, but both clinics have struggled to properly train their staff to handle transgender patients, or even to hire enough staff to function properly. Receiving gender-affirming care in the UK, particularly for transgender youth, remains exceedingly difficult, if not technically impossible. The transition to these new clinics has been described as “shoddy, disorganized [and] messy,” by former staff, and this month NHS England confirmed that they have prescribed no puberty blockers to new patients since GIDS’ closure.
Unfortunately, the UK government is unlikely to intercede and provide any relief, considering their Supreme Court declared earlier this month that transgender women are not legally considered women with regards to the 2010 Equalities Act. Unsurprisingly, this has created many new problems surrounding what reasonably constitutes “biological sex” and how trans women can even exist normally in society without legal recognition and protection.
Staff members have left the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, a government-adjacent equality watchdog, after discovering that multiple EHRC leaders were involved in the removal of trans Britons’ rights. The EHRC also released guidance suggesting that trans people shouldn’t be allowed in single-sex spaces, to which conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has inexplicably suggested they simply use handicap accessible bathrooms instead.
It’s safe to say that the government and courts in the UK simply do not have the trans community’s best interests at heart. Hopefully the many protesting trans folks and allies throughout the UK can nudge things in the right direction.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
