Transitioning Teens

This film follows Charlie Craggs, trans activist and author, as she meets teenagers across the country who have been waiting years for a first appointment at an NHS gender identity clinic. Charlie explores what some feel they have to do to start their own transitions and meets young trans people who are choosing to take matters into their own hands and going down the dangerous route of using unregulated medications and starting their transitions themselves.

With the wait in England lasting over 3 years in some cases for a gender identity clinic appointment, some young people feel as if they have no other option then to begin their transitions without medical intervention. With personal experience of this herself, Charlie Craggs asks what can be done to support trans teenagers and meets an NHS doctor running a new pilot service commissioned by NHS England to help address the backlog at the current adult gender clinics.

This topic is not without controversy and a divided area of medicine and Charlie meets a doctor who has been suspended in relation to her work with trans teens and a lawyer who is working on a legal challenge on behalf of a 14-year-old who has been waiting over a year for his first appointment with the NHS. Charlie explores the high court judgement regarding teenager’s ability to consent to taking hormone blockers and meets a teenager who changed their mind and de-transitioned to find out what happened.