I was interested to read that the approach taken by the team at BC Children’s Hospital requires a “comprehensive psychosocial assessment of an individual before providing gender-affirming therapy” [BCMJ 2022;64:287 [11]]. A family experience there is recounted in an article published in the Economist 2 years ago: “‘We thought we were going to see a psychologist, but it was a nurse and a social worker,’ says Ms Davidson (both her and her daughter’s names have been changed). ‘Within ten minutes they had offered our child Lupron.’”[1] Was this an adequate psychosocial assessment? The parents clearly did not think so.

Why has there been such a huge increase in referrals of children (especially girls), unhappy with their birth gender? Perhaps if we knew the reasons, we could put our resources to better use. Meanwhile, I am concerned that these youth may need more time to consider their decision.
—Richard S. Taylor, MB, BS, FRCPC
Victoria

This letter was submitted in response to “Guest editors reply to Drs Sinai, Regenstreif, and Leising.” [11]

hidden

[12]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License [12].

References

1.    An English ruling on transgender teens could have global repercussions. The Economist. 12 December 2020. Accessed 25 November 2022. www.economist.com/international/2020/12/12/an-english-ruling-on-transgender-teens-could-have-global-repercussions [13].