Media coverage of trans issues has been linked to an increase in the number of young people seeking support at specialist gender clinics, a landmark study has found. In the past 10 years there has been a significant increase in the number of under-18’s being referred to gender clinics, and the reasons for this have so far been unexplained. “Such a rapid increase in clinical demand is unusual within medicine,” said study lead Ken C Pang, “and the underlying reasons for this increase are of great interest”. “Various theories and assumptions have been put forward to explain the rising rates of referral to specialist gender clinics. We felt it was important to move beyond such theories and assumptions to look at the empirical evidence,” said Pang, a clinical scientist fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.