I want to talk about true gender dysphoria, but also the rapid onset gender dysphoria that comes on in adolescence, and their distinct differences. I think this is an uncomfortable but important conversation to have & that writing it off as “transphobic” hurts trans people. 1/14 https://twitter.com/menshealthmag/status/1285982658498101252

First, Gender dysphoria is real. Transpeople exist, they have always existed & they’ve always been targeted for existing. The only cure is to transition a person with it. True GD appears early & is sadly linked to an obscene rate of depression/suicide, regardless of the cure 2/

I want to be crystal clear about this before going forward. True Transpeople are real and they are valued. 3/

Let’s talk about Rapid Onset Gender dysphoria (ROGD), which tends to come on suddenly at 16 years of age in females.

A study was done on this and 256 parent-completed surveys met study’s criteria. 81.2% of the surveyed parented natal females. Here are some statistics:
4/

ROGD affects females: 5:1

Whereas

True GD affects males: 2:1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6626314/

41% of ROGD youth had expressed a non-heterosexual sexual orientation before identifying as transgender.

75% of true GD do. 5/

62.5% had been diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder or neurodevelopmental disability prior to the sudden onset of their gender dysphoria. 6/

36.8% of the friendship groups described, parent participants indicated that the majority of the members all became transgender-identified.

There is no evidence This is not typical of true GD.

47.2% of Parents reported subjective declines in their child’s mental health
7/

57.3% reported a rapid decline in parent-child relationships after “coming out” on the part of their child

49% self-isolated themselves from their families

I thought this most interesting. Where true trans tend to struggle to be accepted, ROGD trans push loved ones away. 8/

22.7% suddenly expressed distrust in non-trans people.

25% stopped spending time with non-trans friends.

46.6% only trusted information about gender dysphoria from transgender sources 9/

86.7% of the parents reported that, along with the sudden onset of ROGD, their child either had an increase in their social media/internet use, belonged to a friend group in which one or multiple friends became transgender-identified during a similar timeframe, or both 10/

As of 2017, ROGD was still an emerging hypothesis with the possibility of social influences, maladaptive coping mechanisms, and Parent-child conflict explaining some of the findings.

ROGD is still so new, that whether it is a phase or a subset is still unknown. 11/

Is there evidence of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria being different from true Gender Dysphoria? Yes.

Do we silence the researchers? NO.

Why not? If only for the 51% of trans who will attempt suicide this year. Ending this epidemic needs that research. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/suicidality-transgender-adults/ 12/

I understand this is a sensitive topic. I thank you in advance for your respectful and insightful discourse. 13/

Citation & copyright: Littman L (2018) Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. PLoS ONE 13(8): e0202330. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202330

Editor: Daniel Romer, University of Pennsylvania, UNITED STATES 14/