Trans youths who socially transition are unlikely to 'detransition' later, study finds

[Jilly_in_VA]

Transgender children are unlikely to "detransition," or come to identify with their birth sex, five years after their social transition, a new study found.

The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics, come from a larger project called the Trans Youth Project. Researchers at Princeton University began in 2013 to track 317 kids between ages 3 and 12 who socially transitioned — the first and largest sample of its kind, according to Kristina Olsen, the study’s lead author and a professor of psychology at Princeton.

The results showed that five years after their initial social transition, 94 percent of the study participants were living as either trans girls or trans boys. The remaining youth had "retransitioned," as the study called it, and no longer identified as binary transgender. Of that group, 2.5 percent came to identify with their birth sex.

The findings come as Republican lawmakers in more than two dozen states have tried, over the last two years, to restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Social transitions can include wearing different clothing and using a different name and pronouns, but the study defined a complete social transition as changing one's pronouns "to the binary gender pronouns that differed from those used at their births."

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/trans-youths-socially-transition-unlikely-detransition-later-rcna27253