The Cass report, gender identity, and where to go next

Abstract

Child and adolescent clinicians in the United States have to be paying attention to what has happened to gender medicine in the United Kingdom. The highly respected service at the Tavistock Clinic has come under intense criticism — confusing as that may be — and in April Hilary Cass released her report to the UK's National Health Service expressing concern for gender medicine, saying it is “built on shaky foundations.” Coupled with recent lawsuits against the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and gender-affirming care, the standard in the United States, clinicians are left pondering their next steps. An editorial in the British Medical Journal following the release of the Cass Report gives a balanced summation. (For the report, go to Download the Final Report). The editorial is subtitled “an opportunity to unite behind evidence informed care in gender medicine.”