The study also found that participants whose gender discontent fluctuated over time — both increasing discontent and decreasing discontent — were more likely to report lower feelings of self-worth and have more behavioral and emotional problems. It also noted that participants who had a non-heterosexual sexual orientation were more likely to report fluctuating levels of discontent about their gender throughout adolescence and early adulthood.
“Gender non-contentedness, while being relatively common during early adolescence, in general, decreases with age and appears to be associated with a poorer self-concept and mental health throughout development,” the researchers explained in a synopsis of the report.
Mary Rice Hasson, the director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA that the study confirms “what most parents know intuitively.”
“A child who experiences discontent about his or her developing body, or the prospect of maturing into a woman or man, is overwhelmingly likely to outgrow those feelings, without intervention,” Hasson said. “Puberty is not a disease — it is a natural process of growth. Sometimes that’s uncomfortable, but — as the study shows — the discomfort dissipates over time.”
In the United States and throughout Europe, the prescription of transgender drugs and the availability of sex-change surgeries for minors has become a major subject of debate. Such prescriptions and procedures for children are banned in nearly two dozen states but remain legal in more than half of the states.
Hasson expressed concern that counselors are pressuring parents to provide these life-altering drugs and procedures for their children when all they need is time to grow more comfortable with their bodies.
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