Rapid-onset gender dysphoria

Summary:
Rapid-onset gender dysphoria might spread through groups of friends and may be a harmful coping mechanism, a new study suggests, but more research is needed.

For individuals with gender dysphoria, the conflict between experienced gender identity and sex observed at birth produces significant emotional distress.

Until recently, it was unusual for a teen to report initial feelings of gender dysphoria during or after puberty without childhood symptoms. Clinicians have reported that this kind of gender dysphoria is on the rise, particularly for patients whose sex was observed to be female at birth. Additionally, the numbers of adolescents seeking care for gender dysphoria has increased dramatically. It is unknown why these changes are occurring.

This month, a Brown University researcher published the first studyto empirically describe teens and young adults who did not have symptoms of gender dysphoria during childhood but who were observed by their parents to rapidly develop gender dysphoria symptoms over days, weeks or months during or after puberty.

"This kind of descriptive study is important because it defines a group and raises questions for more research," said study author Lisa Littman, an assistant professor of the practice of behavioral and social sciences at Brown's School of Public Health. "One of the main conclusions is that more research needs to be done. Descriptive studies aren't randomized controlled trials -- you can't tell cause and effect, and you can't tell prevalence. It's going to take more studies to bring in more information, but this is a start."

Littman surveyed more than 250 parents of children who suddenly developed gender dysphoria symptoms during or after puberty. She said she wanted to better understand the phenomenon, which seems to be on the rise, but had been considered atypical even just a few years ago. Gender dysphoria is defined as the emotional distress a person feels because of the difference between their experienced gender identity and their sex observed at birth. Gender dysphoria is not the same as gender nonconformity, or not following the stereotypes of one's assigned gender.

The children of the parents surveyed were more than 80 percent female at birth and ranged between 11 and 27 years old at the time of survey, with an average age of 16. Additionally, 47 percent of the children were reported as academically gifted, and 41 percent expressed a non-heterosexual sexual orientation prior to their gender dysphoria symptoms. Most of the parent respondents were female, white and U.S. residents.

In the 90-question survey, Littman asked the parents about each of the eight indicators for gender dysphoria in childhood that are detailed by the American Psychiatric Association. To meet the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria in childhood, a child needs to experience at least six of the eight indicators. Most include readily observable signs, such as a strong rejection of typically feminine or masculine toys and games, and strong resistance to wearing typically feminine or masculine clothes. Eighty percent of the parents reported observing none of these indicators in their children before puberty.

Among the noteworthy patterns Littman found in the survey data: 21 percent of parents reported their child had one or more friends become transgender-identified at around the same time; 20 percent reported an increase in their child's social media use around the same time as experiencing gender dysphoria symptoms; and 45 percent reported both.

The pattern of clusters of teens in friend groups becoming transgender-identified, the group dynamics of these friend groups and the types of advice viewed online led her to the hypothesis that friends and online sources could spread certain beliefs. Examples include the belief that non-specific symptoms such as feeling uncomfortable in their own skins or feeling like they don't fit in -- which could be a part of normal puberty or associated with trauma -- should be perceived as gender dysphoria; the belief that the only path to happiness is transition; and the belief that anyone who disagrees with the teen is transphobic and should be cut out of their life.

"Of the parents who provided information about their child's friendship group, about a third responded that more than half of the kids in the friendship group became transgender-identified," Littman said. "A group with 50 percent of its members becoming transgender-identified represents a rate that is more 70 times the expected prevalence for young adults."

Additionally, 62 percent of parents reported their teen or young adult had one or more diagnoses of a psychiatric disorder or neurodevelopmental disability before the onset of gender dysphoria. Forty-eight percent reported that their child had experienced a traumatic or stressful event prior to the onset of their gender dysphoria, including being bullied, sexually assaulted or having their parents get divorced.

This suggests that the drive to transition expressed by these teens and young adults could be a harmful coping mechanism like drugs, alcohol or cutting, Littman said. With harmful coping mechanisms, certain behaviors are used to avoid feeling negative emotions in the short term, but they do not solve the underlying problems and they often cause additional problems, she noted.

Littman added that more research is needed to determine the prevalence of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, whether adolescent-onset gender dysphoria and rapid-onset gender dysphoria are temporary or likely to be long term, and how to best to support individuals with rapid-onset gender dysphoria and their families.

As a next step, Littman is planning to survey parent/teen pairs where the teenager experienced rapid-onset gender dysphoria and their symptoms of gender dysphoria resolved in one to three years without medical treatment. She has encountered such stories anecdotally, she said, and wants to better understand this phenomenon.

In addition, Littman is currently analyzing data from a survey of 100 people who experienced gender dysphoria, chose to undergo medical or surgical transition, and then de-transitioned by stopping hormone treatment or having surgery to reverse the effects of transition.

"There's a lot that we don't know about gender dysphoria," Littman said. "The cultural landscape has changed very dramatically, so it's not unexpected to see new types of presentations. It's important to determine which patients would benefit from medical and surgical transition and which patients would not benefit and might be harmed."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180822150809.htm

Can anyone guess what happened when this peer reviewed study came out and then what the University did?

An Ivy League college is embroiled in a row with trans activists over an article which suggested gender dysphoria was spreading among children.

Brown University has removed research from its website which hypothesised that teenagers who came out as transgender were more likely to have friends who were transitioning and were influenced by YouTube videos and social media.

Academics accused the university of bowing to pressure from activists after it removed a news article and link to Lisa Littman's research. A tweet promoting the paper has also been deleted.

The research concluded "social and peer contagion" was a plausible explanation for "cluster outbreaks" and a high number of cases where the majority of children in a friendship group became "transgender-identified".

A statement from Bess H. Marcus, head of the Brown University School of Public Health, said that concerns over methodology had prompted the removal, adding that members of the university had also complained.

"The School of Public Health has heard from Brown community members expressing concerns that the conclusions of the study could be used to discredit efforts to support transgender youth and invalidate the perspectives of members of the transgender community," she added.

The announcement was made after critics raised concerns about the political stance of the 256 parents who participated in the study, entitled "rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults".

They had been sourced from online discussion groups including British site Transgender Trend and US site 4thwavenow.

Comments on the article, which was published in journal PLOS ONE, describe the sites as "politically bent websites" which hold a "variety of anti-LGBT stances common to the religious right".

On Twitter Transgender Trend said: "Desperate attempts to undermine Lisa Littman's important #ROGD study include defamation of the websites where parents were recruited, including the ridiculous claim that Transgender Trend is 'far right' and wants to 'criminalise' medical transition. We are not and we don't."

Dr Littman's paper acknowledges that the interviewees "might be more oppositional to transgender-identified individuals", but adds that survey questions indicated they had a similar level of support for the rights of transgender people as the rest of the population.

But Susie Green, the CEO of British charity Mermaids, which supports young transgender people and their families, said the methodology of the study was "completely flawed".

"The places they went to get these responses were very much anti-trans websites. They haven't talked to the young people themselves and the parents are sourced from gender-critical websites, who do not believe that trans children exist, who think that children should be forced to accept their birth gender, no matter how much damage that causes," she told the Telegraph.

"As a colleague, a clinician who works in this field has stated, it's like recruiting from a white supremacist website to demonstrate that black people are an inferior race," she added.

Responding, Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, said: "We are a left-leaning group of parents who would support their children no matter what the outcome."

Academics and researchers criticised the decision to remove the study.

James Caspian, a psychotherapist who specialised in gender identity for over a decade, and who is fundraising for a legal case against Bath Spa University for blocking his research into people who decide to de-transition last year, said: "In a way mine was censored in anticipation of being criticised, it would appear that this has been attacked after it's been done, by people whose agenda it doesn't suit."

Bath Spa has previously said it rejected his research on methodological, not ideological grounds.

In a statement posted alongside Dr Littman's article, the journal said: "We take all concerns raised about publications in the journal very seriously, and are following up on these per our policy and COPE guidelines.

"As part of our follow up we will seek further expert assessment on the study’s methodology and analyses. We will provide a further update once we have completed our assessment and discussions."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/28/ivy-league-college-deletes-link-study-claimed-peer-groups-can/

Now I have looked up the two websites where some of the parents were recruited for the study, which you can see the links below and in now way. Are they anti LGBT, Transphobic or Far right as perceived by the political Trans acitivists.

https://www.transgendertrend.com/

https://4thwavenow.com/

All I see is concerned parents that diagnoses by medical professionals are being rushed into.

There was nothing wrong when the paper was peer reviewed and again activists have tried to have this shut down. Though all they achieved was the University taking this off search and off the University. The activists did this based off a lie, calling the parents Far right and religious activists. These activists are denying scientific study and doing so from a position of censurhsip. Which is appalling and doing so by lying.

I am glad to see it is still peer reviewed and to be found on scientifc websites

Something has to be done to stop activists trying to shut down any discussion on this and studies.

It's getting like the Emperor's new clothes. Nobody dares speak up about what utter twaddle most of this is.

Teens have had mass hysterics for centuries. It's the same thing that makes them all slavishly wear the same fashions, walk in groups, play with Ouija boards and pretend to be possessed and eat at the same beanery.

Helicopter parents, gender neutral, gender binary, don't say he or she.

The best one with some angst ridden teen who demanded that the words she/he be changed to zthe/zbx Much easier to pronounce if your pissed, I guess.

I kind of know a 19-year-old girl who's going through a lot of gender confusion right now and yeah, it's total twaddle, she's just an idiot.

Actually no, scratch that, she's amazingly smart for her age, and creative and talented to boot.

But easy answers are fun because they're easy, so let's just stick to them!

*THE Ben Reilly* wrote:I kind of know a 19-year-old girl who's going through a lot of gender confusion right now and yeah, it's total twaddle, she's just an idiot.

Actually no, scratch that, she's amazingly smart for her age, and creative and talented to boot.

But easy answers are fun because they're easy, so let's just stick to them!

They deserve all the help they can get

However,  why then are there Political trans activists trying to shut down studies with posssible answers to these questions and confusion?

Because those Studies See them a disease to be cured, instead of a person with feelings. 

Yes TransPhobs have setup Studies but they are there to Support the trans community in the exact same way that 'pray the gay away' and Conversion therapy was there to support Gays..

I.e. It's 100% Against them Even Existing, it's saying it's there to 'help' by trying to make them Cease to exist.

veya_victaous wrote:Because those Studies See them a disease to be cured, instead of a person with feelings. 

Yes TransPhobs have setup Studies but they are there to Support the trans community in the exact same way that 'pray the gay away' and Conversion therapy was there to support Gays..

I.e. It's 100% Against them Even Existing, it's saying it's there to 'help' by trying to make them Cease to exist.

Do they?

Actually they set out to study further a conditon, that has very little known about this

In no way does it claim to set out a cure, but to understand what is going on with individual people to help treat their condition.

So if they do have gender dysphoria, are you saying its wrong to cure them of where they are male and want to be female, by giving them medication and surgery? As that is what the attempt is to do.

There was nothing transphobic about this study.

What people are clearly beginning to see and seen here in the study is that yes a number have gender dysphoria, but a number had only a sudden onset of this when they started researching this online. Also a number had previous mental health conditions, over 60 %. This is rightly a concern. Where already a number of people today wrongly self diagnose themselves online by what they read. Where if others are influencing a view onto people with a mental health condition to believe they instead suffer gender dysphoria. Then this could be very probematic indeed and then they could end up being misdiagnosed and not treated for the condition that they do already have. Clearly they showed patterns where someone had a sudden onset of gender dysphoria, in their teens alonsgide a friend, a connection to online information etc.

That is not transphobic but trying to understand the rapid rise of this phenomenon.

I have no doubt you want to shut down scientific studies, if it goes against your beliefs. As that is what it boils down and as seen here. Your own poor beliefs here.

*THE Ben Reilly* wrote:I kind of know a 19-year-old girl who's going through a lot of gender confusion right now and yeah, it's total twaddle, she's just an idiot.

Actually no, scratch that, she's amazingly smart for her age, and creative and talented to boot.

But easy answers are fun because they're easy, so let's just stick to them!

Yes the nineteen year old is my niece and you helped her a lot. She adores you and we are watching her go through this.

So for anyone who thinks this sort of shit is “easy” you need to go speak to these people.

HoratioTarr wrote:It's getting like the Emperor's new clothes.   Nobody dares speak up about what utter twaddle most of this is.

Teens have had mass hysterics for centuries.   It's the same thing that makes them all slavishly wear the same fashions, walk in groups, play with Ouija boards and pretend to be possessed  and eat at the same beanery.    

Helicopter parents, gender neutral, gender binary, don't say he or she.  

The best one with some angst ridden teen who demanded that the words she/he be changed to zthe/zbx     Much easier to pronounce if your pissed, I guess.

Yes, lot of it is “fashion” I do get what you’re saying, but amongst those that do it for the wrong reasons are the lost ones, who really feel troubled and anxious because of the way they feel.

eddie wrote:

*THE Ben Reilly* wrote:I kind of know a 19-year-old girl who's going through a lot of gender confusion right now and yeah, it's total twaddle, she's just an idiot.

Actually no, scratch that, she's amazingly smart for her age, and creative and talented to boot.

But easy answers are fun because they're easy, so let's just stick to them!

Yes the nineteen year old is my niece and you helped her a lot. She adores you and we are watching her go through this.

So for anyone who thinks this sort of shit is “easy” you need to go speak to these people.  

Nobody said it was easy Eddie amd why I said all people going through changes need all the help they can get.

This is about how some Political Trans activits are trying to shut down any studies that in part can conflict with their ideologies

There is definately gender dysphoria. Where again much more is need to understand this. What is not going to help that, is Trans activists trying to shut down or censur

I hope your niece gets all the help she can get

Didge wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:Because those Studies See them a disease to be cured, instead of a person with feelings. 

Yes TransPhobs have setup Studies but they are there to Support the trans community in the exact same way that 'pray the gay away' and Conversion therapy was there to support Gays..

I.e. It's 100% Against them Even Existing, it's saying it's there to 'help' by trying to make them Cease to exist.

Do they?

Actually they set out to study further a conditon, that has very little known about this

In no way does it claim to set out a cure, but to understand what is going on with individual people to help treat their condition.

So if they do have gender dysphoria, are you saying its wrong to cure them of where they are male and want to be female, by giving them medication and surgery? As that is what the attempt is to do.

There was nothing transphobic about this study.

What people are clearly beginning to see and seen here in the study is that yes a number have gender dysphoria, but a number had only a sudden onset of this when they started researching this online. Also a number had previous mental health conditions, over 60 %. This is rightly a concern. Where already a number of people today wrongly self diagnose themselves online by what they read. Where if others are influencing a view onto people with a mental health condition to believe they instead suffer gender dysphoria. Then this could be very probematic indeed and then they could end up being misdiagnosed and not treated for the condition that they do already have. Clearly they showed patterns where someone had a sudden onset of gender dysphoria, in their teens alonsgide a friend, a connection to online information etc.

That is not transphobic but trying to understand the rapid rise of this phenomenon.

I have no doubt you want to shut down scientific studies, if it goes against your beliefs. As that is what it boils down and as seen here. Your own poor beliefs here.

I'm Not trans so why the fuck you asking me 

But I am now Starting a Study to try and Treat YOUR condition, so We can Better understand this phenomenon and better treat People suffering from it.  

veya_victaous wrote:

Didge wrote:

Do they?

Actually they set out to study further a conditon, that has very little known about this

In no way does it claim to set out a cure, but to understand what is going on with individual people to help treat their condition.

So if they do have gender dysphoria, are you saying its wrong to cure them of where they are male and want to be female, by giving them medication and surgery? As that is what the attempt is to do.

There was nothing transphobic about this study.

What people are clearly beginning to see and seen here in the study is that yes a number have gender dysphoria, but a number had only a sudden onset of this when they started researching this online. Also a number had previous mental health conditions, over 60 %. This is rightly a concern. Where already a number of people today wrongly self diagnose themselves online by what they read. Where if others are influencing a view onto people with a mental health condition to believe they instead suffer gender dysphoria. Then this could be very probematic indeed and then they could end up being misdiagnosed and not treated for the condition that they do already have. Clearly they showed patterns where someone had a sudden onset of gender dysphoria, in their teens alonsgide a friend, a connection to online information etc.

That is not transphobic but trying to understand the rapid rise of this phenomenon.

I have no doubt you want to shut down scientific studies, if it goes against your beliefs. As that is what it boils down and as seen here. Your own poor beliefs here.

I'm Not trans so why the fuck you asking me 

But I am now Starting a Study to try and Treat YOUR condition, so We can Better understand this phenomenon and better treat People suffering from it.  

I was responding to your poor unfounded and inaccurate points here

So well it seems, you now want to again turn this about me

They still stand waiting for someone to counter them

lol 
too dumb to see that I just turned what You said they are doing (and said they should be fine with) on  you.

Cause trans people are not that different so yes they also take offense being told that People want to 'Study them' like an oddity or experiment to 'Prevent others suffering' from what is the trans person ACTUAL life !!! the only existence they Know!!!

So what's your issue? I'd like to prevent others having to suffer your existence too  

Didge wrote:



Actually they set out to study further a conditon, that has very little known about this

In no way does it claim to set out a cure, but to understand what is going on with individual people to help treat their condition.

So if they do have gender dysphoria, are you saying its wrong to cure them of where they are male and want to be female, by giving them medication and surgery? As that is what the attempt is to do.

There was nothing transphobic about this study.

What people are clearly beginning to see and seen here in the study is that yes a number have gender dysphoria, but a number had only a sudden onset of this when they started researching this online. Also a number had previous mental health conditions, over 60 %. This is rightly a concern. Where already a number of people today wrongly self diagnose themselves online by what they read. Where if others are influencing a view onto people with a mental health condition to believe they instead suffer gender dysphoria. Then this could be very probematic indeed and then they could end up being misdiagnosed and not treated for the condition that they do already have. Clearly they showed patterns where someone had a sudden onset of gender dysphoria, in their teens alonsgide a friend, a connection to online information etc.

That is not transphobic but trying to understand the rapid rise of this phenomenon.

I have no doubt you want to shut down scientific studies, if it goes against your beliefs. As that is what it boils down and as seen here. Your own poor beliefs here.

So posted up to get the debate back on track, as Veya wants again make this about me and not my points

He is also of the opinion, that people should not study conditions

wow

Well actually I think you should not call people 'Conditions' 

But as you have shown across Multiple threads 
You've no respect for any race, gender or sexuality 


Eddie's Niece is a PERSON, she is What she is, she is not Unnatural, she is not a Mistake.
What You want to call it a Condition a Better person would call it HER.
She doesn't have to fit your mold and she doesn't need treatment to force her into your mold.

Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there's a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. It's sometimes known as gender incongruence.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/

As seen yet more new lows from Veya, I was very supportive towrds Eddie's Niece and never claimed she was unnatural. You then add to this with more lies

Like I say Veya you do this all the time, when get taken to task for your poor unfounded views

All can see you want to stiffle research into this condition and the possibillity that some people through rapid gender dysphoria, could in fact being misdiagnosed. That is not going to help those people what so ever

But please continue to lie, as you always do to try and score cheap little points. Its all you can hope to achieve in an intellectual debate

No YOU are the sort of Piece of Shit that Give Lip service to Equality WHEN IT SUITS YOU 
then promotes policies that are the EXACT opposite


Like when you were Homophobic,  ONE day you might grow up, but at the moment You are the same to trans as you were to gays.

See, again resorting to lies, because you simple cannot respond to my points and continually are abusive

I have not been absuive to you once on this thread and you have constantly laid false charges against me

But I am not surprised, when this is all you are capable of

So you think trying to help people by better understanding conditions, is prejudice against Trans people

wow

This just proves the poor line of linking by some of the left

Let’s not try to get personal guys. Keep the peace.

eddie wrote:Let’s not try to get personal guys. Keep the peace.

I was never personal

All the attacks came from veya

He needs to learn to grow up

Multiple posts he has been abusive and lied over views I do not have

If I am not allowed to get away with abuse, then neither should he Eddie

He has spoilt this thread

An urgent investigation has been launched into why soaring numbers of girls aged as young as four want to change gender – and whether social media is to blame. Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt has ordered officials to discover the reasons why the number of girls being referred for 'transitioning' treatment has increased by 4,415 per cent.

Psychologists and behavioural experts will explore why – in the words of one source – some girls think that modern life is 'easier to bear' if they become boys. Official figures show the number of children referred for gender treatment – including hormone injections – has risen from 97 in 2009/10 to 2,519 in 2017/18. But by far the steepest rise has come among girls: up from 40 to 1,806.

A total of 45 of the children were aged six or under, with the youngest ones being just four.

Last night, a source in the Government Equalities Office, which handles policies on 'women, sexual orientation and transgender equality', said: 'There has been a substantial increase in the number of individuals assigned female at birth being referred to the NHS. There is evidence that this trend is happening in other countries as well.

Little is known, however, about why this is and what are the long-term impacts.'

Another source said: 'Is it, to put it crudely, that young girls simply think modern life would be easier to bear if they were boys?' Some therapists believe the rise is linked to the same mental health crisis among girls which has led to an epidemic of self-harm, with social media perpetuating hyper-sexualised ideals of what it means to be a woman.

The Mail on Sunday disclosed last month that almost two thirds of children and teenagers who say they want to change sex have been diagnosed with serious mental health disorders before expressing the desire to transition.

A total of 63 per cent have had 'one or more diagnoses of a psychiatric disorder or neurodevelopmental disability' before announcing they wanted to change gender. Almost half had self-harmed and 50 per cent had suffered a traumatic event in their lives, such as being bullied or suffering sexual abuse.

The MoS has revealed the fears of a leading doctor that the health of hundreds of children is being put at risk by sex-change drugs doled out on the NHS.

Dr Lucy Griffin, a consultant psychiatrist at Bristol Royal Infirmary, said she was 'extremely worried' about the long-term effects the medication was having on adolescents.

She warned that medicines being given to teens to help them change gender can render them infertile, cause osteoporosis and result in sexual dysfunction.

The medicines include 'puberty blocker' drugs, which halt the onset of adulthood, and 'cross sex hormones' which start the physical process of changing sex.

Last year 800 children in England who were unhappy being the sex they were born were given puberty blocking injections, including some as young as ten.

The debate comes against the backdrop a row between feminists and transgender activists over whether transgender women – who were born male – should be placed in the same category as biological females.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6172097/Investigation-ordered-number-transitioning-referrals-increase-four-cent.html