In 2020 Keira Bell, a young British detransitioner, joined the judicial review against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust as a claimant. As a child and young teen, Ms Bell was deeply unhappy. She had a difficult home life, discomfort with the physical developments brought on by puberty, was increasingly isolated, and had realised that she was same sex attracted.
Ms Bell was put onto puberty blockers at 16, testosterone at 17, and given a double mastectomy at age 20. Once she had matured a little, she says she “recognized that gender dysphoria was a symptom of my overall misery, not its cause.”
As a direct result of the judicial review, the NHS National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published two evidence reviews in 2020, and commissioned a review of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service, to be led by Dr Hilary Cass.
The Cass Review had specific, detailed [and limited] terms of reference. It encompassed wide-ranging consultation and rigorous research over four years, and culminated in the publication of nine systematic reviews, upon which the final Cass Review report was based.
We link to the publications produced for and by the Cass Review here, as well as the 2020 NICE evidence reviews.
The Cass Review Reports
Archives of Disease in Childhood:
Gender Identity Service Series
Editorial
Systematic Reviews
International Guidelines
