The surprising clusters of gender dysphoria — the feeling of having a gender identity different than one’s birth sex — arose amid another striking trend. The number of Canadian adolescents reporting to gender-identity clinics with dysphoria has soared in recent years, a large majority of them being teenagers born female.
Trans-care experts say this simply reflects demand for potentially life-saving services that went unmet in the past amid stigma around a long-persecuted minority. Others cite more contentious factors like peer group “social contagion.”
Regardless, as an exponentially rising number of young people seek out such help, some parents, mental health professionals and others are raising concerns about how they’re being treated.
Many of these young patients suffer a range of other mental-health troubles. But the standard approach is what’s called “affirmation” — a ready acceptance of...
