Activist doctors are urging GPs to prescribe cross-sex hormones
That will remove the final remnants of gatekeeping from gender medicine
IN 2020, BEFORE the pandemic slowed treatment further, the NHS set up three new pilot gender clinics with the aim of cutting a long backlog by moving much treatment into primary care. A fourth was added in 2021. The idea was to make it easier for GPs to prescribe hormones to trans-identifying adults and refer them for surgery. Previously, all adults who wished to pursue a medical transition would be referred to one of several specialist Gender Identity Clinics (GICs) attached to major hospitals. The GICs are a bottleneck, with 13,500 people on waiting lists in 2020 and some people having to wait three years for an appointment.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Trans action”
From the February 19th 2022 edition
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