Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Dec;21(4):185-192.
doi: 10.6065/apem.2016.21.4.185. Epub 2016 Dec 31.

Transgender youth: current concepts

Stephen M Rosenthal  1
Affiliations
Review

Transgender youth: current concepts

Stephen M Rosenthal. Ann Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

In many countries throughout the world, increasing numbers of gender nonconforming/transgender youth are seeking medical services to enable the development of physical characteristics consistent with their experienced gender. Such medical services include use of agents to block endogenous puberty at Tanner stage II with subsequent use of cross-sex hormones, and are based on longitudinal studies demonstrating that those individuals who were first identified as gender dysphoric in early or middle childhood and continue to meet the mental health criteria for being transgender at early puberty are likely to be transgender as adults. This review addresses terms and definitions applicable to gender nonconforming youth, studies that shed light on the biologic determinants of gender identity, current clinical practice guidelines for transgender youth, challenges to optimal care, and priorities for research.

Keywords: Cross-sex hormones; Gender dysphoria; Gender nonconforming; Gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist; Transgender.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author has served as a consultant to AbbVie. Inc. Except for that, no potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

References

    1. Vance SR, Jr, Ehrensaft D, Rosenthal SM. Psychological and medical care of gender nonconforming youth. Pediatrics. 2014;134:1184–1192. - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Arlington (VA): American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2013.
    1. Coleman E, Bockting W, Botzer M, Cohen-Kettenis P, DeCuypere G, Feldman J, et al. Standards of care for the health of transsexual, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people, version 7. Int J Transgend. 2012;13:165–232.
    1. Hembree WC, Cohen-Kettenis P, Delemarre-van de Waal HA, Gooren LJ, Meyer WJ, 3rd, Spack NP, et al. Endocrine treatment of transsexual persons: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94:3132–3154. - PubMed
    1. Meyer-Bahlburg HF. Sex steroids and variants of gender identity. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 2013;42:435–452. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources