You don’t become trans under “social pressure” is shown by a study on gender dysphoria

Many Western politicians argue that young people ask themselves many questions about their gender, or even initiate transitions due to fads and social pressure. As the rights of trans people are continually threatened, a scientific article published by Pediatrics (a serious medical journal published by the Academy of American Pediatricians since 1948) comes to pull the rug out from under him.

Among trans people, the AMAB: AFAB ratio is 1.2: 1

Released on August 3, 2022, the scientific study was led by researchers from Boston’s Fenway Institute. Together, they begin by trying to estimate the number of people involved. Among all trans people, the gap is narrowing between the number of persons assigned male at birth (AMAB) and the number of persons assigned female at birth (AFAB).

It is about this report that some politicians fantasize (assuming there are far more AFAB trans people than AMAB trans people) and often exploit criminalize gender-affirming medical treatmentsthe United States and other Western countries.

The research team at Boston’s Fenway Institute then studied data on adolescent gender identity from 2017 to 2019 in 16 states, to measure the AMAB: AFAB ratio. This information was crossed with other information on the intimidation, coercion and suicide rate of transgender people compared to cisgender people. And here’s what results:

“The analysis included 91,937 adolescents in 2017 and 105,437 adolescents in 2019. In 2017, 2,161 (2.4%) participants identified as transgender and of different gender (TGD) [ndlr : personnes dont l’identité de genre diffère de celle qui leur a été assignée à la naissance]with an AMAB: AFAB ratio of 1.5: 1. In 2019, 1640 (1.6%) participants identified as TGDs, with an AMAB: AFAB ratio of 1.2: 1.

Victimization and suicide rates from bullying were higher among TGD youths than their cisgender peers. “

The life of trans people is much more threatened than that of cis people

The researchers conclude that the sex assigned at birth of TGD adolescents in the United States it does not appear to favor AFAB adolescents and should not be used to oppose the provision of care gender affirmation medicine for TGD teens.

In other words, trans people who have been assigned a woman at birth are globally disadvantaged and declaring themselves trans while growing up only adds to their structural difficulties. So they don’t do it to look interesting, to fit in, or to become popular. The same goes for trans AMAB people as compared to cis people.

Challenge the “rapid onset gender dysphoria” hypothesis.

This large Boston study also comes in response to a hypothesis called ” Rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), which could be translated as “rapid onset gender dysphoria”. This controversial hypothesis assumes that people may begin to experience a gender assigned discrepancy at birth once in adolescence from ” social contagion (peer pressure, desire to adapt). And according to this supposition strongly contested by science, people assigned to women at birth would be much more sensitive, vulnerable, to this presumed social contagion.

However, from a methodological point of view, the flawed ROGD hypothesis is based on the testimony of the parents of the children concerned and has not deigned to consult the trans young people in question. And actually, the AMAB: AFAB report shows a slight over-representation of trans people AMAB compared to trans people AFABin the United States, currently.

In fact, on both sides of this spectrum, trans people experience far more pressures, intimidation, and suicide injunctions than cisgender people. Announcing trans people does not magically make them popular, on the contrary: it is transphobia that could silence them or worse. According to a study published in November 2016, supporting trans people in their desire for transition reduces the risk of attempted suicide by 65% ​​for this segment of young people overexposed to transphobic violence.

Featured photo credit: Lina Vanessa Merchan Jimenez of Studio Colombia via Canva