THE ISSUE
Gender dysphoria is a condition in which a person feels distressed by the perception that their biological sex does not match the sex or gender that they would like to be.
Worldwide, gender clinics report sharp increases in the numbers of adolescents with gender dysphoria and marked changes in patient profiles. In the U.S., 5% of young people under 30 identify as a gender different from their sex.

Previously, typical gender dysphoric patients were middle-aged men and young boys. Today, the majority of those seeking social and medical gender-transition are adolescent and young adult females, many of whom have gender dysphoria that first began in puberty or later. There is a high rate of pre-existing mental health conditions among these females, and many showed no prior signs of gender confusion or distress before puberty.
Another concerning (and likely related) group is individuals who once identified as transgender—and received serious medical interventions, ranging from cross-sex hormones to mastectomies to genital surgeries—but later came to realize that their distress stemmed from other conditions. Although the experiences of detransition are diverse, many detransitioners feel irrevocably harmed by a medical system that failed to evaluate and treat the root causes of their distress and instead recommend medical and surgical transitions.
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Currently, all but the most extreme activists recognize that there is a new population of people experiencing gender dysphoria, the number of cases has increased, the presentation of gender dysphoria is markedly different than it was in past populations, and that detransitioners who regret their transitions have become more visible. But nobody knows why the increase occurred, why the population and presentation changed, how long the symptoms of gender dysphoria are likely to last in this new group or which treatments will help and which treatments will harm these young people.
Sound scientific research is urgently needed to address these pressing questions.