International › Denmark · Last reviewed 2026-05-16

Denmark

Summary

Since 2016 Denmark has had a nationwide service for children and young people with gender incongruence, coordinated by the Sexologisk Klinik, with a child and adolescent psychiatric assessment as part of the standard pathway. A Danish review article from 2023 notes that knowledge of long-term effects is lacking and that Denmark, like several other countries, has taken a more cautious approach to hormone treatment (source).

1. Clinical organisation

Since 2016 Denmark has had a nationwide counselling, assessment and treatment service, in which the Sexologisk Klinik has the coordinating role. Referrals come from a general practitioner or another hospital department (source).

2. Assessment and treatment pathway

According to a 2023 article in Ugeskrift for Læger, the service works as follows:

Patients over 10 with long-standing incongruence and stable psychosocial circumstances go through a standard assessment of at least five conversations; those who do not meet the criteria at that moment get a reflection pathway (see inclusion criteria).
A child and adolescent psychiatric assessment, including a diagnostic interview and cognitive testing, for everyone on the standard pathway; contraindications to hormone treatment include substance misuse, suicidal thoughts or self-harm and marked psychological distress (see exclusion criteria).
Puberty suppression can start from Tanner stage II–III and cross-sex hormones from about age 15–16; the authors note that only one study from 2014 has follow-up into adulthood.