Increase in the number of people identifying as transgender in the UK

The number of people identifying as transgender in their GP records in the UK has increased between 2000 and 2018, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in BMJ Medicine , is the first large-scale study in the UK to estimate the number of people whose gender identity is different to their sex assigned at birth. To do this, the team reviewed anonymised data from 7 million individuals aged 10 to 99 years, from IQVIA Medical Research Data, a UK primary care database, between 2000 and 2018. Researchers looked for diagnostic codes that suggested patients had spoken to their GP about gender dysphoria (a state of stress or unhappiness that one's gender does not match their sex at birth). They found that overall, the number of people whose records suggested they were transgender was very low. However, there was nevertheless an increase over the last two decades - rising from about one in 15,000 in 2000, to just over one in 2,500 in 2018. The number of individuals with a health record of being transgender increased in all age groups.