Kids Transitioning

When I was first poking my head out of the closet the best advice for trans children and their parents was to document everything because you are going to get a visit from DCF (Department of Children and Families).

Well the time are changing for the better but we still have our naysayers… it is only a phase that they are going through, or it is because of the family, there is no father figure or the mother is too domineering. They also cite erroneously studies that they say shows a high number of detransitors.

When “desisters” aren’t: De-desistance in childhood and adolescent gender dysphoria
Gender Analysis,
By Zinnia Jones
October 31, 2017

The progression of childhood gender dysphoria has historically been characterized by two known developmental pathways: persistence, in which dysphoria and cross-gender identification continue into adolescence and typically lead to social and medical transition, and desistance, in which the dysphoria abates and adolescents go on to identify and live as their assigned gender. While studies have found that anywhere from 2-27% of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria will persist in feeling dysphoric (Steensma, McGuire, Kreukels, Beekman, & Cohen-Kettenis, 2013), these findings have crucial limitations and have been widely misconstrued in the public discourse.

One issue is that until recently, diagnoses of gender identity disorder in childhood were made using criteria in the DSM-IV and earlier editions. These criteria were so broad that they allowed for gender-nonconforming children to be diagnosed with childhood gender identity disorder even when they did not identify with another gender or want to live as another gender. For that reason, most samples of “gender-dysphoric children” likely included large numbers of children who did not actually experience gender dysphoria in the first place – meaning that their dysphoria did not “desist” at adolescence, but rather was never present. Regarding changes from the DSM-IV-TR to the DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association has stated:

For children, Criterion A1 (“a strong desire to be of the other gender or an insistence that he or she is the other gender . . .)” is now necessary (but not sufficient), which makes the diagnosis more restrictive and conservative.

Steensma & Cohen-Kettenis (2015) further noted:

What should be emphasized is that these studies did not use the fairly strict criteria of the DSM-5, and children could receive the diagnosis based only on gender-variant behavior. With DSM-5 criteria, the persistence rate probably would have been higher.

Additionally, there is a tendency among the public to misunderstand claims such as “80% of gender-dysphoric children will desist in their dysphoria at adolescence” (already called into question by the aforementioned diagnostic issues) as meaning that any individual child with gender dysphoria can, all else being equal, be assumed to have an 80% likelihood of desisting. But these are two distinct claims, and the latter claim does not accurately represent what is known about the developmental course of childhood and adolescent gender dysphoria.

Much of the research into children with gender dysphoria have been taken out of context by the opposition and some of the authors of the various studies have refuted the opposition’s interpretation of their data.

I have had the honor of knowing a number of trans children and have watched them grow up, and they are the most well-adjusted children that I know. None of them have detransitioned.

I recommend read the whole article.