There is a fascinating study that has been ongoing by the Human Diversity Lab at Princeton University since 2013. It is called the TransYouth Project, and its purview is to follow some 300 socially-transitioned transgender children over a period of 20 years.

One of the psychologists involved is Kristina Olsen, who said: "'[Back when we started] our team was interested in recruiting a group of kids who were socially transitioning,' she explains, meaning they started using new pronouns and names and clothes in childhood, between age 3 and 12. They found 300 families, and have followed them since, to see what their life would look like as they moved into adolescence and adulthood.'”

What they found over this extended period of time was the lack of regret from the majority of participants, in using "medical interventions like puberty blockers and hormones."

"The study on regret and satisfaction is based on a survey of 220 of those families. By now, the kids are teenagers — the average age of participants was 16 years old — and are several years into taking either puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones."

“'What we found was that this group had very high levels of satisfaction,' she says. Olson knew from being in touch with the families that they seemed pretty happy with their care, but the results still surprised her. 'I was pretty surprised at how satisfied they were — more than 50% [rated their satisfaction] a 7 on a 7-point scale.'”

"Only 4% of participants — nine kids — expressed regret with some aspect of their care. When the researchers asked more about these regrets, she says, “often the regrets they were expressing had to do with [wishing] they hadn't done blockers and they'd gone straight to hormones, or they maybe had a negative side effect related to the blockers.” For instance, having an implant that got irritated."

These results fly in the face of political opposition which claims trans children are being manipulated by their parents and other adults to serve an agenda.

"There’s also been a flurry of legislative action on this issue at the state level in recent years. Twenty-six states have now enacted laws banning the care the youth in this study received. Often, lawmakers speak of the prospect of children’s future regret as the reason why these bans are needed."

"Virtually all major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support access to gender-affirming care for young people."

As with much of the cis public's image of the transgender community, the common perception that transgender youth frequently regret starting medical transition at a young age, is inaccurate.

Just one of the many misconceptions we must continue to overcome. Just one of the many battles we must continue to fight.

--- Anni 🏳️‍⚧️