In the UK, the NHS will begin screening all children referred to gender clinics for autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and ADHD. The guidance, due to be released for public consultation imminently, will be implemented later this year at gender clinics in London and Manchester.
Children will undergo a more thorough screening to uncover a more complex image of them, including environmental factors (traumas, family)—not just their mental state. The NHS guidance notes that gender-questioning children have “higher rates of mental health difficulties” and describes a past “reluctance to explore or address” these issues.
The report states that if the screening “identifies the presence of neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a referral should be considered to the Paediatric Neurodevelopmental Service or Paediatric ASD Service,” not a gender-changing one.
In recent years, both autism and gender confusion have spiked in numbers in the UK. The rate of gender confusion among under-18s increased from 0.14 per 10,000 in 2011 to 4.4 per 10,000 in 2021, largely driven by adolescent girls. Meanwhile, autism diagnoses rose from roughly one in 2,500 children to one in 34 children aged 10 to 14, according to 2018 estimates.
Interestingly, one study found that people identifying as transgender were up to six times more likely to be autistic than those who were not. Young, teenage girls—the largest demographic group in these cases—are “struggling with gender identity, suicidal ideation and self-harm” with cases of “undiagnosed autism, which is often missed in adolescent girls,” the report points out.
