While proponents of “gender-affirming” treatment for adolescents claim that the confusion surrounding gender isn’t just a phase that one can grow out of, a long-term, large-scale study from the Netherlands seems to suggest otherwise.
For their study, researchers at the University of Groningen looked at data collected from 2,772 individuals through a survey spanning 15 years. Beginning at age 11, the participants were periodically asked about how they felt about their own gender, until they reached their mid-twenties.