Transgender Good Practice

Youth & Family

Transgender people can be any age.  It is common for transgender people to be gender variant from a very young age and transgender children and teenagers can experience just as intense gender dysphoria as transgender adults.

Historically, the needs of transgender young people have often been overlooked.  It is often much harder for a transgender child to get other people to listen to and accept their views about their personal gender identity, than it is for a transgender adult.  Young people often find that adults will simply try to impose upon them what the adults think is “for the best” rather than taking account of how the young person wishes to be treated.

A major issue for transgender youth is that their dependence on their family for money, housing and transport can restrict their ability to access transgender support groups or gender identity clinics if their parents do not support their transgender identity.  Also, transgender young people often struggle to get doctors, teachers, parents and social workers to take their gender dysphoria seriously as adults may simply ignore a young person’s gender dysphoria in the hope that they will “grow out of it”. 

Where a young person has an intersex condition, they can face a major struggle simply to be told the truth about their intersex condition and about any medical treatments, such as surgery, carried out on them while they were very young.  Just as for young people with other medical conditions, young intersex people should be given clear and balanced information and supported to make their own medical decisions about surgery and hormonal treatment where ever they have the capacity to understand the consequences.

Also within this section of the website, other family issues such as the needs of families where a parent is transgender and also the issues for transgender people wishing to adopt a child or use fertility services are addressed.