Your visit to GIDS

Your first appointment

Your first appointment with GIDS at Leeds Children's Hospital will be a nurse-led group education session, run by a Clinical Nurse Specialist at Seacroft Hospital. This session will provide both the young person and their family with important information about what our service can offer, options for treatment, reasons for smoking cessation, fertility preservation, bone health, sexual health and vitamin D supplementation.

You will receive an extensive information pack which is designed for you to take away and consider at home.

Baseline tests including a bone density scan* are also undertaken at this initial appointment to prevent repeated trips - we know many of our families travel long distances to attend clinic. This also means that the results are available for the first consultant appointment.

If it has been identified that the group session is not appropriate for you, then the initial appointment will be with the Consultant Paediatric and Adolescent Endocrinologist.

You can see what's it's like to visit GIDS at Leeds Children's Hospital, meet some of our team and find out what to expect at your bone density scan in some handy videos here, on LCHTV. 

*Bone density scans take place at our Leeds General Infirmary site. This will be made clear on your clinic letter. 

Your second appointment

Your second appointment is with a Consultant Endocrinologist. Along with your family you are invited back around two months after the nurse-led education session to meet the Endocrinologist at a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) clinic at Seacroft Hospital. This is also attended by the Clinical Nurse Specialist along with a member of the Tavistock team.

At this appointment the team will talk to you about the various assessments that are necessary before you can be considered for any medical intervention. Assessments include a medical history, feedback on earlier baseline tests, height, weight and a physical examination to check general health and pubertal development.

You will be able to discuss next steps with the team and ask any questions that you have. 

We're here to listen and to help

We know that coming to clinic and appointments can be daunting and we want you to feel safe and comfortable within our service. If you have any questions, need any help or want to talk about something privately - please just ask a member of the team. We'll do our best to adapt our services to meet your needs.  

We endeavour to always be respectful and use your identified pronouns but if we make a mistake, please let us know so that we can get it right next time.