Reacción a "Reactions: Discontinuation of hormone treatment in people who started transition during adolescence is rare"

The study is of particular interest given the great speculation that surrounds this issue, especially among children and young people. The study aims to demonstrate, with a methodology that is more than adequate, that transgender people who begin their transition in childhood-adolescence do not give up. By following a cohort, it shows how almost all adolescents who began their care with hormone blockers at puberty later continued with hormone treatment in accordance with their gender identity. It also shows how this trend, both in patients seeking care and the proportion who continued with treatment, has not changed from more than ten years ago. 

The study complements previous studies in this line that have already shown that there was no scientific evidence to support the suspicion of the supposed discontinuation of hormone treatment in adolescents. It also shows that there are no differences in the age at which the transition to hormone blockers began, which is another of the arguments that are usually used against the care of transgender minors.  

Regarding the limitations of the study, it is a study carried out in a single centre which, however, has been caring for trans children for more than twenty years. Another limitation is that the assessment of the continuity of treatment is made by crossing the data of those people in that centre who started hormone blocking at puberty with the centralised data on hormone prescription. In this way it was found that 2 % had no hormone prescription after years of using the blockade at puberty. Since this was done through data mining, it is impossible to know the reasons why the 2% did not continue hormones (it could be due to adverse effects or a desire to make a non-medicalised transition, among others).  

Finally, the study uses the term "gender dysphoria", which is no longer in use due to WHO recommendations. However, it may be useful in this study to clarify that it includes patients who expressed a desire to transition with hormonal support (the study does not mention patients who transition without hormonal support). 

The main contribution of this study is to shed light with evidence in a field in which there is an abundance of unipersonal voices, but with great media repercussions, that question the gender identity of trans children and the health actions in this regard. In contrast to opinions that claim that adolescent trans people "regret" their transition and that trans identity is "a fad", this article presents scientific evidence that shows that trans children almost entirely maintain their treatment after adolescence.