Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Consultation report for the interim service specification for specialist gender incongruence services for children and young people published by NHS England on 9 June 2023, if she will provide a definition of the term early-onset gender dysphoria.

Early-onset gender dysphoria is referred to in NHS England’s Consultation report for the interim service specification. It is referenced in relation to research that has been commissioned by the research board, chaired by Professor Sir Simon Wessely, into the impact of puberty suppressing hormones in children with ‘early-onset’ gender dysphoria.

The focus on ‘early-onset’ gender dysphoria responds directly to findings from the Cass Review that in recent years there has been a dramatic change in the case-mix of referrals to specialist gender services. from predominantly birth-registered males presenting with gender incongruence from an early age to predominantly birth-registered females presenting with later onset of reported gender incongruence in early teens. It will be for the clinical trial study team to propose the precise eligibility definitions to be used in the study as the proposal is developed over the next few months.