ABSTRACT
Changes in attitudes have encouraged increasing numbers of young people to identify as gender-dysphoric. In order to reduce the distress caused by the onset of puberty, young people with gender-dysphoria are increasingly seeking pubertal-suppression therapy. Health care professionals must then confront a variety of clinical, ethical and legal issues. This chapter examines three therapeutic approaches to adolescent gender dysphoria, and, in particular, the responsibilities of health care professionals towards young people requesting pubertal-suppression therapy. Due to the many social stigmas still associated with gender dysphoria and gender reassignment, clinicians may find themselves facing a personal crisis as to the best treatment for the young person. In the United Kingdom, children under 18 are generally deemed incapable of giving consent to treatment because of their minority. Gender reassignment treatment is no longer a medical practice in its infancy. It was initiated at the end of the 19th century, and has been provided regularly since the late 1960s.
