50 percent of Tavistock patients were autistic, suggesting misdiagnosis
Ben Leo said:
“The Tavistock clinic found that up to 50 percent of patients were on the autism spectrum suffering with depression maybe, suffering with autism, Asperger's and so on. 50 percent. Do you know ever, has it ever sort of dawned on you or maybe in a conscious moment you thought, well, hang on a minute. Maybe these children who are saying they're born in the wrong body... maybe they're just unhappy because they're struggling to deal with everyday social cohesion”
The Tavistock clinic is a real institution whose closure was widely reported, and elevated rates of autism among gender-diverse young people are documented in the literature. The suggestion that autism might explain gender dysphoria rather than co-exist with it sounds like a reasonable clinical caution.
Yes, autistic young people are over-represented among those who seek gender care, and any good clinician takes that seriously. But the research does not show that autism produces a false sense of gender identity, and no respected clinical body has ever suggested that a co-occurring condition should disqualify someone from care. What the evidence actually shows is that autistic trans people tend to be very clear about who they are, often more so, and that denying them care on the basis of their autism rather than their own stated experience is a decision made by the clinician, not the evidence. The practical consequence of this framing is that the most vulnerable young people in this group wait the longest, are assessed most sceptically, and are refused care most often, which is precisely the group the research identifies as being at highest risk of self-harm when that care is withheld.
What I said at the time:
“But are you saying that people with autism or depression shouldn't have care? Is that what you're kind of saying?... These people are transgender people who are asking to access health care, like any other person.”
Autistic trans young people, who are already among the most vulnerable, and who may be told that their gender identity is simply a symptom of their autism and therefore not worthy of care.