Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Trans people have to wait an average of 25 years for care in the UK, new report finds

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/10/trans-people-have-to-wait-an-average-of-25-years-for-care-in-the-uk-new-report-finds/

Faefyx Collington (8 Oct 2025)

In the United Kingdom, trans people can currently expect to wait an average of 25 years for an initial appointment to start gender-affirming care with one of the nation's gender clinics, according to a new analysis of freedom of information requests conducted by Queer AF.

That wait time is almost a third of the average life expectancy for an adult in the United Kingdom, and several gender clinics have wait times that are years longer. The most extreme of those is found in Glasgow, Scotland, where the waiting list means new referrals could have to wait 224 years before getting an initial assessment.

In the U.K., to receive gender-affirming care on the national health care system, NHS, it is required to first get a referral to a gender clinic from a general practitioner before waiting for an initial assessment and to eventually receive recommended prescriptions. All stages of this process regularly include excessive invasive questions about a trans person's identity, life, and sex life that can leave them feeling like they have to "prove" that they're "trans enough."

The website for the Tavistock and Portman gender clinic in London shows that it currently has over 16,500 patients on its waitlist and is currently offering appointments to people first referred in March 2020. While they have received 300 referrals in the last month, they have only offered 73 first assessment appointments in the same time frame.

This is so sad.

Yikes!! 😳

I had hoped times had improved  from 1989. I had a 19 month wait for an appointment at Charing Cross. The waiting list at Leeds was even longer so the Dr advised  me to  go for Charing  Cross even though Leeds was nearer

2 years to be seen at Nottingham.

No wonder people go to foreign countries to have surgery.

Imagine how much money the local healthcare industry is losing due to its own neglect. Not just money, but expertise. The best surgeons will go where they get paid, and with plenty of patients, their skills stay honed and they stay up to date on the latest technology and technique.

Any wonder why Thailand has such excellent gender-affirming healthcare, by top-rated surgeons in state-of-the-art medical centers? Because they can afford it.

We would never have that problem in New TransZealand. 😄

Quote from: Lori Dee on October 09, 2025, 08:32:29 AMNo wonder people go to foreign countries to have surgery.

Imagine how much money the local healthcare industry is losing due to its own neglect. Not just money, but expertise. The best surgeons will go where they get paid, and with plenty of patients, their skills stay honed and they stay up to date on the latest technology and technique.

Any wonder why Thailand has such excellent gender-affirming healthcare, by top-rated surgeons in state-of-the-art medical centers? Because they can afford it.

We would never have that problem in New TransZealand. 😄

That's kind of the thing, Lori. With the NHS it isn't about losing money. The NHS isn't an industry, as such. In spite of what sometimes people want it to be. The last government we had was kind of big on this idea... of making it into an industry where it was about a business model. Trump even wanted to buy part of it.

This article is talking about people who get their care under the NHS, at basically no cost to themselves other than the National Insurance that all UK people have to pay as a tax. If you go private, then it becomes more like the US healthcare system. Where money can buy you anything, in a relatively short timeframe. But you need to have the money. We don't really have healthcare insurance in the same way you folks do over there. You pay out of your own pocket unless you take out private health insurance, on top of what you're already paying towards the NHS. Jobs don't often cover things like that because they already cover the cost of your National Insurance payments. In the UK, private healthcare is kind of a second layer of treatment on top of what everyone is already paying for, by law.

Most people, most of the time, go through the NHS. Where waiting lists for pretty much everything are longer than you would expect. Because it's nationalised medicine. When you can just pay for people to do stuff straight away, then stuff gets done. But when you have thousands of people needing a few people to do things so they don't have to pay people to do stuff on top of what they already pay... then backlogs happen. They happen for everything. Gender affirming care has dropped lower and lower down the priority list over the last few years... I think we all know why. But hospitals have always been, and probably always will be understaffed, underskilled and underpaid because like you say... it's more lucrative for people to engage in private medicine. Where they can make more money. For some people it is "How can I help people?", but for most it's "How can I afford that Ferrari?".

Things take different priorities with the budget the NHS has, depending a lot on who's in charge. Or what's in the headlines that particular week. If trans folks are under a sustained campaign of "You don't exist", then that priority is going to be lower, compared to other stuff. That doesn't mean it's less important, it just means that the zeitgeist of the day sees it as less important. So money and time isn't allocated to it over other things. It's mostly populism and politics which determines what is at the top of the agenda.

I am not surprised by this article at all, honestly. Not in today's climate, and having an idea of how the NHS works.

Thanks for clarifying. That is certainly a big difference.

Quote from: Lori Dee on October 10, 2025, 05:36:29 PMThanks for clarifying. That is certainly a big difference.

Even treatment for cancer patients is based on how quickly they think you're going to die. It is one massive juggling act. They only have so much money to do so many operations with so many trained professionals in a certain timeframe. To people looking on who have a different system it seems horribly skewed... and it probably is, honestly. I think I would suggest to trans folks in the UK... just don't use the NHS. If at all possible, go down a private route. It will serve you better. Nationalised medicine, for all the panacea some people think it is... and in some ways it can be, depending who you are and what's wrong with you, it can also have its issues. Just like the massively greedy corporate systems of other places who charge a hundred thousand for an operation because they know the insurance will pay 95% of it. Nothing is perfect, you just have to work with what you have, or change it, or look for a middle ground.