• I’D hoped the interim report of Dr Hilary Cass on transgender services might allow for a more informed debate and discussion, but your correspondent, (Speak up on gender dysphoria and how children are treated, August 4) uses criticism of the practices of the Tavistock Gender Identity Clinic to call for a wholesale condemnation of services for young trans people.

This is an interim report and Dr Cass is conducting further research on controversial issues such as the use of beta blockers.

However the enormous increase in the number of referrals of young women transitioning from female to male, a phenomenon which is duplicated internationally, is one the most striking features of the report.

Referrals to the clinic rose from 50 a year in 2009 to 2,500. Those working with young people will also be aware of these changes.

It seems the Tavistock was overwhelmed by numbers and lacked the rigorous clinical, and perhaps theoretical, procedures to deal with a very different set of needs; but we should not do likewise.

Something has changed and it important to understand why a trans identity or non-binary identity is something many young people, especially young women, desire.

ANGELA MASON, N6