Fascinating graphs track the explosion of gender-questioning young people in the UK over recent years.
More than 5,000 referrals were made to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in 2021/22, compared to just a few hundred a decade earlier.
Girls have represented an increasing proportion of the total.
Almost two-thirds of referrals in recent years corresponded to adolescent girls.
By comparison, children made up the vast majority when NHS doctors offered gender care to children and young people a decade ago.
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Scientists don’t know what’s behind the alarming trend of girls being more vulnerable to feelings of gender dysphoria and wanting to become boys, and research is now being done.
The statistics formed part of Cass’s explosive review, which ruled that the basic elements of NHS treatment for trans young people – such as the distribution of puberty blockers and sex hormones – were built on “shaky foundations”.
A damning 400-page report by respected pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass found that such treatments have little evidence of positive outcomes or long-term safety.
While the overall number of patients has been rising for years, in a trend that experts have attributed to growing awareness of trans issues and online resources, the pandemic caused a spike in the case rate.
This is due, at least in part, to pent-up demand for gender services, like many other aspects of UK healthcare, which suffered Covid-related disruptions.
Commentators have also suggested that, like some adults, isolation during the pandemic lockdowns and increased online social interaction could have led to introspection or doubt among children about their gender identity.
According to the theory, this could have contributed to the increase in cases shown in the data.
But it’s not so easy to explain why girls in particular seem more vulnerable to this trend.
While rates of gender dysphoria have risen broadly across all age groups and in both sexes, experts have noted a particular increase in teenage girls.
Of the 5,000 referrals to NHS child gender services received in 2021, two-thirds were from women.
Such a “dramatic shift in the referral case mix”, as the NHS called it at the time, was one of the reasons the health service set up the Cass review in the first place.
Dr. Cass’s final report does not identify a reason why girls have apparently become more vulnerable to feelings of gender dysphoria over time.
However, he pointed out a number of issues that have affected Generation Z more than previous generations.
This includes the “unprecedented” potential harms of always being online, and girls seem particularly vulnerable.
He cited British research of 10,000 children born between 2000 and 2002 that found that 43 percent of girls (then 14 years old) used social media three or more hours a day, compared to 22 percent of boys. .
Girls were also more likely (38.7 percent) to experience online bullying compared to boys (25.1 percent).
They also reported higher rates of low self-esteem (12.8 percent), dissatisfaction with body weight (78.2 percent), and dissatisfaction with their appearance (15.4 percent).
For context, adolescents reported 8.9 percent, 68.3 percent, and 11.8 percent rates of low self-esteem, body weight dissatisfaction, and unhappy appearance, respectively.
Experts suggest that exposure to online pornography, particularly when women are subjected to violent or aggressive acts, could also play a role.
A UK government investigation has found that this type of explicit content is now so widespread that young people can no longer “opt out” of it.
These factors combined could be contributing to the rise in depression among teenage girls, with some theoretically clinging to the idea of changing gender as a way to “fix” themselves and be happy, or so the theory goes.
Cass’s own review has called for research into the relationship between pornography consumption and gender dysphoria.
More broadly, the review says: “The striking increase in young people presenting with gender incongruence/dysphoria needs to be considered within the context of poor mental health and emotional distress among the general adolescent population.”
He noted that there has also been a similar sex divide in rising rates of other mental health problems such as depression, self-harm and eating disorders among young people, especially girls.
“The increase in visits to gender clinics has to some extent paralleled this deterioration in the mental health of children and adolescents,” Cass’ study reads.
‘Mental health problems have increased in both boys and girls, but have been most striking in girls and young women.
“In addition to the increasing prevalence of depression and anxiety, presentations of eating disorders and self-harm have increased since the Covid pandemic.”
