In just four years Western Australia has seen a 350 per cent increase in ‘transgender’ children wanting to transition to the opposite sex.
According to Perth Now, during the period of 2014-15, Perth Children’s Hospital’s gender diversity service received just 26 referrals for children aged under 18. That figure increased dramatically during 2015-16 to 105 referrals.
During 2016-17 the figure rose to 116 referrals. There are currently 207 patients under 18 seeking gender treatment at the hospital.
“At the moment, there are 43 children receiving stage one hormonal treatment, which involves puberty suppression and reversible treatment, while 30 children are receiving stage two cross-sex hormone, estrogen and testosterone treatment,” Perth Now revealed.
What’s surprising to many is that about two-thirds of those current referrals are “birth assigned females.” And Perth is by no means the exception.
In the UK, Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt has ordered an urgent investigation, after it was revealed there has been a 4,415 per cent increase in the number of girls being referred for ‘transitioning’ treatment.
Figures show in 2009-10 there were 97 children referred for gender treatment, including hormone injections. By 2017-18 that numbered jump to 2,519, with girls making up more than 70 per cent of that figure. A total of 45 were aged six or under.
A source at the UK Government Equalities Office said: “There has been a substantial increase in the number of individuals assigned female at birth being referred to the NHS. There is evidence that this trend is happening in other countries as well. Little is known, however, about why this is and what are the long-term impacts.”
Last month the Daily Mail disclosed that almost two thirds of children and teens who wish to change their gender have been “diagnosed with serious mental health disorders before expressing the desire to transition.”
“A total of 63 percent have had ‘one or more diagnoses of a psychiatric disorder or neurodevelopmental disability’ before announcing they wanted to change gender. Almost half had self-harmed and 50 per cent had suffered a traumatic event in their lives, such as being bullied or suffering sexual abuse,” according to The Mail.
Dr Paul McHugh, former head of psychiatry at John Hopkins University, has argued 70-80 per cent of all children with transgender feelings grow out of it.
McHugh went on to say, “policy makers and the media are doing no favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention.
