The number of children accessing medical treatment to help them change gender has increased 60-fold, leaving Australia’s only clinic for transgender young people struggling to cope with the rise in demand.
Exclusive figures obtained by The Sunday Age show the Royal Children’s Hospital gender dysphoria service is seeing 150 patients a year, with new referrals rising from one per year in 2003 to 60 in 2014.
Parents of children as young as three with gender dysphoria – which causes persistent and distressing feelings of being born the wrong sex – are facing a five-month wait for treatment.
Doctors say the surge in demand is being seen throughout the Western world as increased awareness of transgender issues prompts more people to seek help to transition to the gender with which they identify.