Ten sites across Canada were part of this study:

1. CHEO Diversity Clinic-Ottawa, ON
2. GDAAY Clinic-Winnipeg, MB
3. Alberta Children’s Hospital METTA Clinic-Calgary, AB
4. BC Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic-Vancouver, BC
5. Stollery Children’s Transgender Clinic-Edmonton, AB
6. Centre Meraki-Montreal, QC
7. IWK Health Centre Transgender Clinic-Halifax, NS
8. SickKids Hospital Gender Clinic – Toronto, ON
9. McMaster Children’s Hospital Adolescent Medicine Clinic – Hamilton, ON
10. LHSC Children’s Hospital Gender Pathways Service – London, ON

Each clinic enrolled new patients into the study at a slightly different time period. We invited new patients referred to these clinics for blockers or hormones to join this study. For youth who decided to join, we asked a parent or caregiver to join if the youth would like them to. Only new patients who were 15 years old or younger and who were pubertal/postpubertal were able to join the study, since we need to be able to follow the youth through the pediatric clinic for two years before they transfer to adult care.

 

Participants in this study were asked to:

1. Answer questions with an interviewer at the clinic for 3 surveys over 2 years.
   • These surveys will take about 45-60 minutes each.
   • Youth will get a $20 gift card for each survey.
2. Fill out a very short online checklist every 3 months over the 2 years.
   • Youth will get a $10 gift card for each online checklist.
3. We asked permission for a youth’s doctors to give us some medical information on their health and treatment from their medical records (for example, the hormone levels from blood tests).
4. We also paid for parking for a person who brings the youth to clinic for the 3 clinic visits where participants are doing a survey, and will provide drinks and snacks.
5. If youth wanted a parent or caregiver to also be part of the study (and they agree), the parent/caregiver also filled out 3 surveys about their own experiences over 2 years. These can be done while at the clinic or online.
   • These surveys would take about 20-30 minutes each.
   • Parents/caregivers will get a $20 gift card for each survey.

 

There are some important things to know about this study:

• All of a participant’s individual answers for the surveys are only be seen by the research team
• If a youth’s own doctor sees their answers along with those of other participants, we make sure they cannot tell who the youth are from that information (not all answers will be included)
• Doing this study did not change a youth’s medical care in any way, and did not change how quickly youth got in to see a doctor
• Doing this study did not add any extra visits to the clinic, though it did add extra time to three visits
• Youth did not need to have a parent or caregiver also do the study
• We did not ask youth’s parent or caregiver to do the study unless the youth wants us to
• It is completely a youth’s choice to join the study, no one is be upset if they don’t want to join, and they received the exact same care whether they are part of the study or not