U.K. child gender dysphoria increased 50-fold in a decade, study shows

The number of British children confused about their gender grew roughly 50 times larger between 2011 and 2021, per a recent study. The research, published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, showed that in 2011 only about 190 kids in the United Kingdom experienced gender dysphoria. By 2021 that number had skyrocketed to around 10,290.

What other findings did researchers uncover?

• During every year of that decade, a growing number of kids reported confusion about their gender, with the exception of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing and access to healthcare was restricted, according to the study.

• From 2011 to 2014, boys and girls experienced gender confusion in roughly even numbers. Starting in 2015, more girls than boys experienced confusion about their gender. In 2021, the number of girls who experienced gender confusion was roughly twice as large as the number of boys dealing with the same feelings, the researchers found.

• Just slightly over half of all the children experiencing confusion about their gender also struggled with anxiety, depression, and self-harming behaviors, the study said.

• Virtually no children received hormone treatments to suppress certain aspects of their body’s biological sex in 2011, researchers found. By 2015, that number had grown to to roughly 7.6%, before it plummeted back down to around 3.0% in 2021, the study found.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how President Donald Trump has said there are only two sexes, and that so-called transgender ideology has harmed the United States.