gendr
Step 1 of 8Orientation

Understanding gender services.

A grounded starting point. What an adult NHS Gender Identity Clinic is, what it does and doesn't do, and the language you'll meet on the way.

Team talk

There's no single right path. There is a path that's right for you.

The next eight steps walk through choices you may face. None of them is required, none is on a fixed timetable, and the conversation with a clinician is always part of the picture. This first step doesn't ask anything of you, it just sets the scene.

Option talk

A quick glossary.

Gender incongruence is when the gender someone feels themselves to be doesn't match the sex they were assigned at birth. It is not a mental illness. The World Health Organization's classification (ICD-11) moved it out of the mental-disorders chapter in 2019.

Gender dysphoria is the distress that can come with gender incongruence. It can be persistent or it can come and go. It is a recognised reason to be referred to a Gender Identity Clinic.

A Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) is an NHS specialist service for adults. Its team usually includes psychiatrists, psychologists, endocrinologists, speech and language therapists, and nurses. The clinic assesses, plans, and supports care; in some cases it prescribes hormones, recommends surgery, or offers psychological support and voice therapy.

What a GIC doesn't do, it does not provide instant treatment, does not treat without an assessment, and is not the right service for an emergency. For urgent help, your GP, NHS 111, or 999 are the right routes.

About the wait. The average wait for a first appointment at an adult GIC in England is currently over five years. This is widely acknowledged as unacceptably long, and the system is changing, gendr will keep this content current as it does.

Carry this with you

The BRAN questions.

Four short questions you can ask about any decision, about hormones, about a screening test, about anything. They aren't about distrusting your clinician; they're about being a clear partner in the conversation.

  • BBenefits. What are the possible benefits, and how likely?
  • RRisks. What are the risks, downsides, or side-effects?
  • AAlternatives. What other options are there?
  • NNothing. What happens if I wait, or do nothing for now?

A first pass

What brought you here?

There's no right answer. You can change this later. It just gives the rest of the journey somewhere to start.

3
Not at allVery clear
3
Not nearlyPlenty
3
Quite aloneWell supported

Your words

If you were sitting in front of a clinician right now, what's the first thing you'd want them to understand about you?

Decision talk

Take this question to step 2.

If something here landed for you, you can save it as a question for your appointment. You can add as many as you like, they'll appear in your My notes page and be available to print.