My advice to you Lucas is look at figures like buck angel, maybe also read the book "irreversible damage" it contains a lot of information, all sourced and she acknowledges that for some people perhaps transitioning is what they need, but for the vast majority puberty blockers and hormones change the story entirely. Many doctors in the UK have resigned from the Tavistock clinic because they don't believe people are being given the support they need (I've therapy). I personally dated a gay guy who had gender dysphoria as a kid and teen and then it went away as he reached the end of puberty, he's now a happy gay man. I know it's not like that for everyone. What's really important is that you should know you're not bad or stupid for asking questions. In the end this will be the responsibility of the adults who didn't provide therapy, who changed from watchful waiting to this affirmative model. I have watched the same thing happen with the increase in teens identifying as queer or questioning- I believe the majority of then are just figuring stuff out. But sexual identities can be taken back if it turns out you identified wrong. The effects of testosterone on the body are not reversible. I recommend, especially in the case of females, that they wait til they're older, maybe even 25. In the long run if you were to still feel you would be happier being perceived as male by society you can make a choice in that direction later. You might have a better idea by then what is at the heart of your dysphoria. Best of luck to you

I'm sorry that you have been through this. You are still a woman. Do you have any advice you would offer to people watching young women going through a similar experience? Things you wish someone had said to you earlier in a way that it might have reached you better?

When someone says I need to accept them as non binary what I hear is "you need to accept me as a blatato" Something that just doesn't exist. I can accept them as a man or woman who believes they are neither. But I can't enact their belief system in my own head.

I think if you just take out the label of gender identity, the true spectrum of what used to be called personality traits just exists. I got read as feminine until I hit 30 and whether I am or not it's just an adjective describing people's perception of me. I'm happy being myself.

This. I was born in the mid eighties, in college I had a gay friend who had been gender-dysphoric as a child and who grew out of it. I really think if we had been born a decade later he would have been on puberty blockers and I would probably have thought I was trans too to avoid the religious shame I felt at being gay and to gain acceptance as a potential partner from all the straight boys I fancied. Also so many of these transactivists make such logically flawed arguments, it's as though actual critical thinking skills have been put to one side in favour of emotional blackmail, appeal to authority, no true scotsman etc.

Dear 20 year old Female. I'm sorry you went through this. There is no requirement for you despise yourself. The gay community is made up of people, and many of them understand. I'm a gay man, I'm older than you and I'm pretty sure, as many gay men my age are, if I had been born in your generation, I would have been socialised towards transition via a mixture of wanting to find myself, being alternately love-bombed by large groups on social media, and then railed against by the same groups. This is a social dynamic. If you need to take time away, that's ok. Listen another thing, for many older people who are gay, the "queer" label is often used by people who are just figuring stuff out (it's used for all manner of things). It is my understanding that people who used to identify as trans were treated with "watchful waiting" with reduced access to hormones or surgery because the majority of people with this literally grew out of it via their own puberty. I dated a guy in college who had persistent gender dysphoria as a kid and who was treated this way, and it just went away in time. I don't think you should blame yourself here, there are much larger currents at work which you got caught up in- you were 7 when the smartphone was invented. The following is what has happened in my opinion. First of all social media is designed to mine your dopamine and refine it into data which can then be sold. This stuff is designed to hook you, it pushes up our anxiety and it hooks us into validation, and it's now a part of young people's formative years. Secondly these structures make people vulnerable to ideological echo chambers and group think. I do not think that the trans identity social contagion would have been possible without social media. Thirdly you don't have to apologise that you've offended someone in trying to figure out who you are, you don't have to say all the right things, you don't have to "be perfect" you come across as a young woman who has been through a distressing and confusing string of events and is asking questions and starting to push back against an instilled sense of guilt for doubting a narrative. What you have been through is a form of cult think designed to love-bomb you, promise you answers, and to silence you if you dissent. My advice is talk to family members who love you and will support you if you have them and if not reach out to friends, or reach out as you're doing here. You asking for help is you intuitively protecting yourself. Keep asking questions. You have a right to ask them. Don't worry so much about "offending gay people" I assure you that the sane ones will care far more about your mental health and biological integrity than they will about "being offended"