We are an NHS adult gender service for Greater Manchester, which has been commissioned to provide care that is local, timely and easier to access. Indigo is a partnership between gtd healthcare a not-for-profit organisation with an established presence of primary care and urgent care services in the north-west, and LGBT Foundation, a national charity delivering services, advice and information for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities.
Our service is accepting new referrals. To access Indigo, at time of referral you must be:
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aged 17 or over
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registered with a GP in Greater Manchester, and eligible for NHS treatment.
The service is the culmination of several years of work to develop an improved model of care, which is local, timely, and easier to access.
At Indigo we see people in order of their referral date. Further information on our waiting list is available here.
We know that trans and non-binary people are the experts of their own experience, and that is why this service has been developed by and for trans communities. Our services are trans and non-binary led, with trans and non-binary people guiding and feeding into them at all levels.
Indigo offers trans and non-binary people different ways to access support services, including assessment and diagnosis for gender dysphoria. This includes holistic assessments of an individual's needs and offers referrals and signposting to other services.
We work within the NHS service specification, which requires at least two in-depth one-hour appointments with clinicians trained in assessing and diagnosing gender dysphoria. These appointments assess the person’s physical and mental health history, as well as their experience of gender.
Not all trans and non-binary people want to go down a medical transition route, but for those who do, recommendations for hormone treatment, hair removal or surgery are only made after our clinicians have confirmed a diagnosis.
Our support is person-centred - we recognise that there are many ways to be trans and non-binary and we tailor our support to meet each person's individual needs. There is no standard route, speed or order of interventions anyone needs to follow. Treatment is only made at the pace comfortable for people accessing the service, with continuous oversight of our clinicians.
A team of care navigators with lived experience, work with people who access Indigo to help them to get the most out of the service and enable them to connect with local organisations across Greater Manchester.
We take a multidisciplinary approach to care, bringing together knowledge and expertise from different fields and backgrounds to ensure our service delivers the highest quality care to trans communities. Indigo is staffed by an experienced primary care team from the Greater Manchester healthcare system.
We make sure that care is safe, inclusive and affirmative. We do this by supporting trans and non-binary people to be well informed about their choices by sharing knowledge, explaining options, promoting health, and supporting people to make decisions that are right for them, at their pace.
Further information about Indigo is available in the We are Indigo Gender Service leaflet.
