New Research: 50-Fold Increase in ‘Gender Dysphoria’ in UK

New research out of the University of York has found a 50-fold increase in “gender distress” in children and young people in the United Kingdom in just 10 years. Social contagion and mental illness may play a role in the large rise.
The BMJ reported the results, which were originally published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood on January 24, 2025.
The study looked at primary care data in England, and suggests that “1 in every 200 17-18 year olds are affected” by “psychological distress caused by a mismatch between birth sex and gender identity.” The BMJ reported that “from 2015 onwards, the numbers of cases rose more rapidly in those recorded as female than those recorded as male by their family doctors, and were around twice as high by 2021.”
The researchers also found that 53% of the children “had concurrent anxiety, depression, or self-harm recorded.”
Such a large increase in a significant mental health disorder doesn’t happen naturally, societal factors must play a role.
While the York researchers didn’t study the issue of causation, they suggested some possible contributing factors to explain the dramatic increase in children struggling with sexual identity confusion:
Here in the U.S., the number of minors with gender dysphoria diagnoses have also surged, with one report showing an increase from 15,175 children in 2017 to 42,167 in 2022.
Those numbers don’t count the growing number of children and young adults identifying as something other than their biological sex. As reported in the Daily Citizen, a 2023 Gallup study of 18 to 25-year old members of Gen Z showed almost 20% identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, with 3.3% identifying as “transgender” or “other LGBT.”
In 2024, Mia Hughes published a devastating exposé of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health’s (WPATH) “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People.”
WPATH supports dangerous, experimental and body damaging “gender-affirming care” for children and adults, including puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries.
Hughes’ report, The WPATH Files: Pseudoscientific surgical and hormonal experiments on children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults, demonstrated “the world-leading transgender healthcare group is neither scientific nor advocating for ethical medical care.”
In a post about the new study on X, Hughes stated, “There has never been a more obvious social contagion in all of history.”
There has never been a more obvious social contagion in all of history https://t.co/azAcDFP26f pic.twitter.com/9HWZSR3rb5
— Mia Hughes (@_CryMiaRiver) January 25, 2025
Executive Director and Founder of Genspect Stella O’Malley said of the increase:
She added that she could understand children struggling, adding that clinicians and other “adults in the room need to exercise caution and be very careful with the treatment they give” children.
"I put it down to social contagion, social media, and an extraordinary politicisation of the trans identity so that people who are lost and vulnerable feel drawn to it."
— Genspect (@genspect) January 24, 2025
Our director, @stellaomalley3, on GB News discussing a shocking study showing kids are 50 times more likely… pic.twitter.com/2jcushASEr
Indeed. Children who struggle with this intense self-hatred, along with the fantasy that they can become a different sex, deserve compassionate, loving care to embrace their bodily sex.
What they don’t need are harmful, experimental medical interventions that top their natural body and brain development and growth; disfigure and sterilize them; and risk major medical complications such as low bone density, high blood pressure, breast cancer, liver disease, thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease.
Related articles and resources:
British Lawsuit Says Children Are Too Young To Consent To ‘Transgender’ Medical Procedures
Counseling for Sexual Identity Concerns: A Measured, Careful, and Compassionate Approach
Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources
Important New Journal Article Calls Out Doctors for Harming Youth with Medicalized Gender Ideology
Questioning Drugs, Hormones and Surgery for Youth Confused about Their Sexual Identity
Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria – Researcher’s Work Vindicated
Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show? ‘Trust the Science’ About ‘Gender-Affirming Care.’ What Science?
Image from Getty.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Johnston is a culture and policy analyst for Focus on the Family and a staff writer for the Daily Citizen. He researches, writes and teaches about topics of concern to families such as parental rights, religious freedom, LGBT issues, education and free speech. Johnston has been interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning, The New York Times, Associated Press News, The Christian Post, Rolling Stone and Vice, and is a frequent guest on radio and television outlets. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from San Diego State University with a Bachelors in English and a Teaching Credential. He and his wife have been married 30 years and have three grown sons.
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