Gender Identity Service

• Referral introduction
• Referral acknowledgement
• Waiting times until first appointment

Referral introduction

You can only be referred to the Gender Identity Service by your GP or NHS healthcare professional. We only accept referrals for people aged 18 and above. Download our Gender Identity Service referral form and email the completed form to the Gender Identity Service. Please contact the service for a print friendly version of the form.

Referrals for people under the age of 18 should be directed to National Children and Young People Gender Referral Support Service.

If you are emailing from outside the NHS, please be aware that we cannot guarantee the security of any emails you send to us. Using email is therefore at your own risk. If you would prefer, you can send information by post instead, using the address provided on the referral form.

Please note that if you or your patient decides to change their NHS number whilst they are waiting, this may mean that we no longer have access to their information or referral, so this may cause difficulties in offering an appointment. We would ask that you/your patient contacts the service to inform of the change.

Please note that breast augmentation, thyroid chondroplasty (tracheal shave) or cricothyroid approximations (vocal pitch) are not currently funded by NHS England. If you are requesting a review of current hormone treatment only, please be aware that we do not offer monitoring and that it may be more appropriate to refer to a local endocrinologist for review.

Referral acknowledgement

When we receive your referral, this will be reviewed and then added to our waiting list if further information is not required. Both you and your GP will receive an acknowledgement letter once this has been completed. This letter will also include forms to be completed and some further useful information. If you have not received an acknowledgement of your referral within 12 weeks, please contact the service.

If you have been transferred to us from the Child and Young Person’s Gender Service (GIDS), and you have already had an appointment, you will be placed on the priority waiting list and offered an appointment as soon as we can. If you have been transferred to us from this service and you have not yet been seen for an appointment, we will honour your existing waiting times.

To understand what happens after the referral, visit our care pathway.

Waiting times

The following is an overview of the current waiting times. Please note it is an estimate guide – there are many factors that could affect this, and it will not be the same for everyone.

Waiting times until first appointment

The following is an overview of the current waiting times. Please note it is an estimate guide – there are many factors that could affect this, and it will not be the same for everyone.

This information was updated on 2 March 2026.

There are currently 7075 people on our standard waiting list to be seen.

We are currently booking appointments from our standard waiting list for people who were referred in approximately October 2019. If you were referred before this date and have not been contacted, please contact the service.

There are currently 134 people on our priority waiting list waiting to be seen.

The Trust takes the issue of waiting times very seriously. The Leeds Gender Identity Service waiting times are currently reported to our public Trust Board meetings every two months.