Rethinking Youth Gender Medicine
London
5/6 July 2026
Day one | Aetiologies, evidence, research, and ethics
Registration from 8.30 am
9.15 am Conference begins
Introduction Dr Louise Irvine, co-chair CAN-SG
Welcoming speech: Baroness Dianne Hayter
Why this debate is vital for children and young people: Maeve Halligan
9.45 am History and aetiologies
- Chair: Dr Stella Kingett
- A brief history of gender medicine and the rise of the Dutch protocol (Zhenya Abbruzzese)
- How the availability of puberty suppression transformed the social, cultural, and medical landscape (Prof. Michael Biggs)
- Diagnoses in gender medicine: How does language shape what we understand and what we’re allowed to question? (Prof Alex Byrne)
11 am Coffee
11.30 am Evidence, uncertainty, and risk
- Chair: Dr Louise Irvine
- Diagnostic, aetiological and prognostic uncertainty in youth gender medicine (Dr. Alison Clayton)
- Breaking the Mold: How the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Decided to Put Evidence First (Scot Bradley Glasberg, M.D., former chair of American Plastic Surgery Association)
- Clinical trials in gender medicine: do risks outweigh benefits? (Dr. Ray Zhang)
1 pm Lunch
2pm Research
- Chair: Prof Alice Sullivan
- Barriers to research in gender medicine (Prof Alice Sullivan)
- Puberty blockers and the adolescent brain (Prof. Sallie Baxendale)
- Pathways puberty blocker trial: safety and ethics Dr. Sinéad Helyar)
- Hormonal interventions in gender medicine: what are the harms (Dr. Hannah Ryan)
3.30pm Coffee
4pm Ethical challenges in youth gender medicine
- Chair: Zhenya Abbruzzese
- When evidence is uncertain how do we decide? (Zhenya Abbruzzese)
- Evidence, Ethics, and Youth Gender Dysphoria (Prof. Moti Gorin)
- Ethical dilemmas for parents of children who identify as trans (parent)
5.20 pm End of conference day one
5.30 pm -7.30 pm Reception
Day two | Social and cultural contexts, clinical perspectives
Registration 8.30 am
9 am Social and cultural influences
- Chair Dr David Pilgrim
- Social transition: what’s the harm? (Stephanie Davies-Arai)
- Beliefs about medical transition and the body in online trans spaces (Sarah Mittermaier)
- Social pressures on young women (Maeve Halligan)
- Detransition pathways: going back but moving forward (Michael Kerr)
- Beyond Trans: what kind of support do detransitioners need? (Dr Stella O’Malley)
10.45 am Coffee
11.15 am Psychotherapy
- Chair: Dr David Bell
- Embodied distress in adolescence (Anastassis Spiliadis)
- Practising without fear: recent research from France (Prof. Céline Masson)
- Psychotherapeutic work with gender-distressed youth (Dr. Anna Hutchinson and Dr Celia Sadie)
- Working therapeutically with families of gender distressed youth (Dr Stephen Levine)
1 pm Lunch
2 pm Clinical perspectives
- Chair: Dr Aileen O’Brien
- Uncertainty and risk: should general practitioners prescribe cross-sex hormones (Dr Louise Irvine)
- Investigating the link between autism spectrum disorders and gender-related distress (Dr. Katie Alcock)
- Pelvic floor complications of testosterone use in women and how physiotherapy can help (Elaine Miller)
3.15 pm Coffee
3.45 pm Looking to the future panel discussion:
How can we support children, families and young adults?
Chair: Sue Evans, with Stephanie Davies-Arai, Dr. Anna Hutchinson, Dr Hannah Ryan, Dr. Stephen Levine, Michael Kerr, Dr Stella O’Malley and a parent perspective