The National Health Service in Britain is cautioning doctors against transitioning young people away from their birth gender because, they say, many young people with gender dysphoria are going through a “transient phase.”
In fact, the data supports that.
Researchers have studied children with gender dysphoria since the early 1990s. They found that the vast majority of them do outgrow gender dysphoria in their mid to late teens, and many of them turn out to be healthy gay adults. The cultural movement of the moment is to take those children and put them on dangerous puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones rather than treat their dysphoria to see if it resolves. This is a disservice to children, particularly gay children, and authorities are starting to realize that.
The decision to transition children is often made by therapists and not medical doctors. The NHS suggests that this is something medical doctors should lead, especially given the severity of the drugs it entails. It also suggests discouraging children from changing their names and pronouns early in their treatment and instead promotes a “watchful approach.”
