Majority of Transgender Youth Maintain Their Gender Identity Five Years After Childhood Social Transition: Study

A study, “Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition,” pre-published online in Pediatrics on May 4, found that 7.3% of 317 socially-transitioned transgender children had changed their gender identification (retransitioned) at least once an average of five years after initial social transition. Most youth continued to identify as binary transgender youth (94%) within the 5-year timeframe, including 1.3% who retransitioned to another identity before returning to their binary transgender identity. About 2.5% of youth came to identify as cisgender and 3.5% as nonbinary, according to the study, to be published in the August 2022 Pediatrics. The longitudinal sample was initially recruited between July 2013 and December 2017, when they were 3-12 years of age (average age 8.1 years), including 208 initially transgender girls and 109 initially transgender boys. They had initially socially transitioned to live in accordance with their gender and not the gender assumed by their sex at birth-- a process that typically involves changing a child’s pronouns, first name, hairstyle, and clothing -- on average, at age 6.5 years old. Researchers noted a slightly higher rate of retransition, particularly to a cisgender identity, among youth who initially socially transitioned before age 6. However, even in these youth, retransition rates were very low. When youth retransitioned to a cisgender identity, this nearly always occurred before age 10 and before beginning medical transition.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.