UPDATE August 18, 2016: The National Review is reporting this morning that the study was “launched” by 4thWaveNow. While we are very glad to see this research effort take place, the study was initiated and is being carried out by Lisa Littman, MD, MPH at Mt. Sinai in New York. Please see below for details.
Many members of the 4thWaveNow community are parents of teens who became convinced they were the opposite sex after a steady diet of social media and/or peer influence. In most of our cases, the transgender identity came on suddenly and with little warning.
Our families’ experiences haven’t been acknowledged nor reflected in the mainstream media, but now a researcher has decided to systematically investigate the phenomenon.
The survey study is being conducted by Lisa Littman, MD, MPH, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. Dr. Littman’s survey description is below. The SurveyMonkey link at the bottom of this post contains more detailed information.
If you are–or know of–a parent in this situation, please consider participating in the survey. Note that responses are kept anonymous.
Rapid onset gender dysphoria, social media, and peer groups
GCO# 16-1211-00001-01-PD
We have heard from many parents describing that their child had a rapid onset of gender dysphoria in the context of increasing social media use and/or being part of a peer group in which one or multiple friends has developed gender dysphoria and come out as transgender during a similar time frame. Several parents have described situations where entire friend groups became gender dysphoric. This type of presentation is atypical and has not been studied to date. We feel that this phenomenon needs to be described and studied scientifically.
If your child has had sudden or rapid development of gender dysphoria beginning between the ages of 10 and 21, please consider completing the following online survey. If you have more than one child with gender dysphoria who fits the above description, please complete one survey per child.
This survey is completely anonymous and confidential and conducted through Survey monkey, an independent third- party. There is no way to connect your name with your responses. We do not track email or IP addresses. The survey should take 30-60 minutes. Participation in this research study is voluntary, and you may refuse or quit at any time before completing the survey.
If you know of any individuals with a similar experience who might be eligible for this survey, or any communities where there might be eligible parents, please copy and paste this recruitment notice and survey link to share.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SCX9RZY
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*Our families’ experiences haven’t been acknowledged nor reflected in the mainstream media, but now a researcher has decided to systematically investigate the phenomenon.*
I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity. Finally we are able to speak out about this tragedy that is happening to our youth, and the impact that it has on the entire family. I will be filling out the survey shortly. Friends, please take this opportunity to do the same. If you know other parents that are in the same situation, please forward this to them.
Yes. Please share this post and the survey link as widely as possible.
One question stopped me cold:
Did the gender therapist/doctor/clinic request your child’s pediatric medical records?
They did not! How is this not malpractice? This is pure insanity.
I hope the findings of this study make it to the New York Times – they’ve just advertised for a reporter to cover gender issues.
this is great. finally there will be some findings regarding this ‘instant trans’ business and social contagion, vs the “no one would want to be trans, you can’t ‘catch’ trans” contention that the transactivists assert. will definitely fill this out and share.
Thank you thank you thank you dr. Littman !!!!!
!!!
I have filled out my survey and will pass on
Thank you so much. I echo the above sentiments. I have completed the survey and will be sharing.
Just completed the survey. Thank you! I hope the results get posted as soon as possible….can’t happen fast enough. So glad someone is working on this issue.
I am so grateful for all involved in getting this survey produced. It finally feels like somebody will start listening to the voices of the parents who haven’t swallowed the gender pill. I’ve just completed the survey.
Psychiatry invents diseases. It has transformed uncomfortable emotions and socially unwanted behaviors into medical artefacts, such that now we have absurd terms like “rapid onset gender dysphoria.” It is because the use of medicalese lends legitimacy to these terms and makes them appear to be scientific facts, actual brain diseases that need permanent medical intervention. The impetus for this practice is economic, purely and simply, but it also transforms cultural and political problems into brain disorders contained within individuals and so becomes a way to demonize and control people.
One of the best summaries of the “transgender-trend” I’ve ever read.
To a great extent – we all know – medicine is *not* about curing diseases and helping people, but about money, politics and social power.
In fact this “disease” is spreading all over academia, in general.
I find it difficult to find a branch of modern science that is not ‘infected”: medicine, climatology, physics, cosmology, etc.
Reblogged this on identitypoliticsblog.
This is so important. Perhaps it will get some mainstream media coverage. Finally the voices of those of us with different beliefs and views from the trans cult and their allies are beginning to be heard. Though my daughter made it through, several of her contemporaries did not, and some lovely lesbian young women fell for the patriarchal myth of gender, which, combined with the insidious internalized misogyny, and other individualized issues, led them to the “trans” delusion. The erasure of lesbians. What this study is referring to, and what is happening to our youth who are caught up in this tragedy, I think is creatively depicted in a recent English movie called The Falling, with Maxine Peake. It is on Netflix and I would be curious to know if others see it as related.
Reblogged this on There Are So Many Things Wrong With This.
Glad to see and participate in this, also a possible link/ causation of Aspbergers.
This is much-needed in order to break into mainstream media and through all the trans industry marketing, thank you Dr. Littman!!!
For those who don’t already know, there’s a new, extensive article entitled “In The Absence of the Sacred: The Marketing of Medical Transgenderism and The Survival of the Natural Child” is publishing in the upcoming anthology Female Erasure, with a forward by 77 year-old feminist foremother Germaine Greer. Pre-sales here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/female-erasure–2/x/14294316#/backers
I would recommend people support this even if they aren’t radfem. The issue of modern trans activism is being covered in this book in many angles. There is a diversity of dissent to the trans narrative in this book and trans activist are constantly reporting this fundraiser, trying to get it removed for “hate speech”.
Oops, correct link here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/female-erasure–2/x/14294316#/
And this too: http://www.FemaleErasure.com
I’ve ordered a copy! I love the title of that article because I’ve always seen my daughter as a “Nature Child”, but somehow she has latched onto being male. I can’t wait to get the book.
Did anyone see the recent episode of “I Am Jazz” where she visited a neighboring high school? At this school, there were ten kids transitioning, all FTM. They didn’t go into the background of these kids, so I don’t know if their gender dysphoria was rapid onset. But this episode is on YouTube, in case anyone wants to check it out. (It’s Season 2, episode 5.)
I can’t find a way to stream this anywhere. Its taken down from Youtube and not released for streaming on pay sites. Do you happen to know the name of the high school. I am interested in how many students attend that school.
I’ve watched it on You Tube. Can you see it from the below link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy1_HA4YMr0
Jazz’s mother is trying to get her a transgender boy friend, I think. For in this episode she takes Jazz to a group in a neighbourhood school which has lots, (yes, I think the number ten was mentioned), of phenotypically female teens in it who are transitioning. Because, Jazz is depressed and withdrawn socially, as while all her girl friends at school are gossiping about boys and flirting with them, none of the boys in her school will date her as, quoting Jazz, “they think that would make them gay”. The programme says Jazz is on medication for depression because she’s inherited depression from Jeanette’s side of the family, but surely the unhappy above details could have some relevance? Which is what Jeanette thinks I feel, hence her chivvying Jazz to this group in a different school to the one Jazz attends, because there’s trans boys there.
In fact clinical depression is a common symptom on the event one compromises their endocrine system is compromised with synthetic hormones. The vast majority of the Male-to-Female transsexuals I interviewed took SSRIs after three to five years of hormone replacement therapy where these subjects reported no issue with their respective moods prior to HRT.
I believe the mother is being disingenuous about her history of depression. It is extremely unusual for biological males to suffer depression prior to puberty.
Eugene Pichler
http://www.transgression.com
At least one of the kids had transferred to that school from Jazz’s school. So maybe there are a lot of transkids at that particular school because it has a reputation for being more pro-LGBT or something along those lines? I don’t know… It just seems like ten FTM transkids at the same school is a lot, especially since Jazz’s mother said Jazz is the only one at her school.
I don’t think they identified the name of the school. I don’t think it would be appropriate for them to do so. I only know the Jennings family lives somewhere in Florida. (Miami?)
Having watched a couple of recent “I Am Jazz” episodes, I am worried about her. On one hand, Jazz is such an intelligent, confident kid who seems comfortable with public speaking. Yet at the same time, I also see a depressed, unhappy young person who has difficulty relating to other teenagers and whose entire life seems to revolve around being transgender. I wonder if the TV show and the activism (not to mention all the medical interventions) are taking too much of a toll on this kid? I mean, she said she eats lunch in the school bathroom because she has no friends! That’s SAD! I wonder if perhaps it would be better for Jazz to spend less time being a professional transkid and more time doing normal high school activities? The skills she learned as an activist could be put to good use in a group like Model UN or the debate team or the school newspaper. The drama club might be a good, fun place for her to meet some of the more open-minded kids in her school. (Even if Jazz doesn’t want to be onstage, she can paint sets or sew costumes.) Learning to play a musical instrument and joining the band or orchestra might also be a good option. But Jazz’s mother seems to think meeting more transkids and getting even more involved with trans activism is the answer. When Jazz met with those FTM kids, it was clear she didn’t relate to them; they didn’t have anything in common besides the fact that they all identified as transgender. Maybe in a different context, where they painted murals, put on a show, or went bowling, they might find some common ground and become real friends with each other. But sitting together in a support group meeting while being filmed for a reality show? Not so much.
I think you raise some excellent points. I really feel for Jazz and her family because I think they’ve been mislead by the medical profession into thinking transitioning into a medicalised facsimile of the opposite sex is the answer for her, and this so much ignores the fact that it’s a very hard path to take socially, because biology and innate biological instincts, most of the time in life, assert the upper hand sooner or later.
I come from England, and we didn’t have high school three decades ago when I was a teen, and since then I’ve been a home education soul among likewise, so I’m not familiar with how American high school works socially. There was nothing beyond basic education provided when I was at school – no youth groups or creative outlet schemes, no proms. And, locally here there is a charity funded centre which provides training in music and various things for local children and teens to do, as I’ve heard there is nothing in the schools here beyond the basics of training-for-exams education, although they’ve been doing proms in some nearby schools for some years – and most people here are too poor to pay for classes and social events for their children. American high school culture, as seen in the movies, TV and heard about online, also seems extremely different to the British working class teen school culture that I’ve known – much more extravert, and, about kids being cool or not, and, differences in people and stuff – our parents expected us to treat the other teenagers at school all equally, and it seems there was much more uniformity among us – and, so on – I’d feel totally out of my depth giving an opinion on how Jazz could fit in socially in a American culture I don’t know. But, I think Jeanette is being sensible trying to get Jazz to meet trans boys, because so much of the undercurrent *or* the overwhelming over-current of socialising in teens is sexual interest, and, I think Jazz is much more likely to get a boyfriend who isn’t put off by her having a penis or being trans if she socialises with trans boys, because of biology feelings – and, I think Jeanette senses that Jazz likes boys, not girls And if Jazz did get a trans boyfriend, it might be the happy answer for her. Or, through finding out how she feels more about her body and sex from that experience, she might decide instead that she wants to de trans – I mean, if the sexual side doesn’t seem right for her. I think it could help her to move forwards with becoming involved in life instead of unhappily withdrawn in her shell.
All the emphasis on her being trans, though, I agree, must be a huge strain, and she could do with getting involved in activities with trans teens where they just socialise and have fun. She didn’t want to meet a group of random teens just to talk about being trans. And who can blame her, she’s just a kid.
Every American high school is different, but most of them offer a variety of extracurricular activities. This is where kids meet each other and make friends, especially in larger schools where it is easy to get lost in the crowd. These activities are also an important part of getting into college, or earning scholarships, so the kids (an their parents) take them seriously. They aren’t just for fun. A depressed kid with no friends who isn’t in any activities is not on a good path.
I agree that Jazz’s parents have been misled by professionals. I wonder if perhaps it really was easier for Jazz to live as a girl when she first transitioned at age five? She seemed like a happy kid then. But when kids are that little, the difference between boys and girls is mostly about clothes, hair, toys, and other superficial stuff. But then they get to the middle school years (which I believe is akin to junior school in the UK) and suddenly the boy/girl differences are more complicated. A 5-year-old isn’t going to anticipate any of this. I get the impression Jazz’s parents didn’t consider the long-term consequences of socially transitioning such a young child. Or else they DID consider it and the professionals dismissed their concerns with talk about medical interventions. (“Don’t worry about how Jazz will feel about being the only girl at school who doesn’t need a bra. The puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones will give her a more feminine-looking body, enough to make her look like a late-developing cisgender female. And later on, she can have top surgery…”)
Whatever the case, Jazz seems to have hit the wall. Her family is VERY supportive. They did everything right in the eyes of medical professionals. But it doesn’t seem to be enough. Jazz is still struggling.
Oh wow, that’s a revelation about the significance of the extra curricular activities; I always wondered why on earth the teens in American high schools were usually all so concerned with a social life attached to it, when that wasn’t ever going to put bread on the table – and, as the famous saying goes, hell is other people. If that leads to scholarships to college and how well they do in college, (I can’t really grasp how that works), it makes sense that they would. I suppose, it also creates all the different groups of teens with different stuff in common. I know schools in the UK are less academically orientated than they once were, but, they do specialise with different things to learn or train in here. I’m very introverted, so I must say I’m really glad I was educated here, as having to socialise or not succeed sounds like hell, and I’m sure I’d just not have achieved anything. So poor Jazz! It is much more serious for her than what I thought – that she just lacks some company and fun interests.
The impression I get of these doctors, from reading sites like this, is that they just concentrate on treating the gender dysphoria and completely ignore the family and social aspects of transitioning, such as infertility and finding romantic and sexual partners. I just feel only a small percentage of people can be content with never having biological children of their own, so with infertility as an ending point, there is no probably no happy ending for the majority of these children as regards them transitioning permanently. And, as far as the social aspects go for sex and romance, it’s experimental, it’s questionable whether their peers will accept them as men or women and then will continue to do so as they get into the more mature, settling down with children years. I would suspect that most heterosexual boys and men want a natural woman. I would suspect most gay men don’t want a transgender woman who’s had surgery. Contrary to impressions, lots of bisexual people prefer a natural man or a natural woman. That’s so many people that the chances of them finding a romantic mate and sexual partners is slim. Perhaps if polyamory becomes more popular, Jazz could be okay with a hetero man who takes her on as an extra woman in polyfidelity, having children with another wife or wives; but does anyone know if Jazz is polyamorously inclined? What about the trans children who are monogamously inclined? I think probably the best chances these children have to find romance, sex and family units as they grow up, are with other trans children, such as Jazz with a trans boy; but at the moment the trans world is such a new thing, we don’t even know if trans people themselves will be attracted enough to other trans people to usually make relationships with them and be happy with them.
On the fertility problem alone, I really don’t think its worth it. I think it’s okay maybe to let very young children live as the opposite sex, because of the reasons you say; to them it’s about clothes and toys and hair styles, they don’t really understand. You cannot reason with a very young child. Being free of gender roles expectations, as used to happen, is the healthiest thing I think for all kids. But I think older children, Jazz’s age, should be helped to accept themselves as they are biologically, because they’re old enough to understand the facts, and the adults in their lives owe them the facts; it isn’t possible to change sex; fertility is important. I’m not saying it would be easy for her. But adolescence and reality is extremely hard for a large number of people, and they come to accept and love themselves as they are. When it is hard for someone to accept themselves, that’s a mental health problem, and they need different ways of looking at themselves, not to be encouraged to pretend to other people that they’re something else, or encouraged in to dangerous surgeries and risky drugs as the permanent only solution to their pains.
Omg. This has to be exposed!!!
Pseudocelebrity thinkfluencing (social contagion, mass hysteria) is apparently a “thing” via social media like FB, Snapchat, and youtube.
Social networks can create the illusion that something is common when it is actually rare – especially when those networks are Internet-based and don’t require much reality to sustain and actually encourages antisocial behavior and apathy towards non-digital realities.
As explained by Kristina Lerman at USC and reported here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538866/the-social-network-illusion-that-tricks-your-mind/
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I am so happy this is finally being studied. We need to get this concept out into the main stream media ASAP!!! Our kids are at risk. Every day they resonate in this false trans state, it becomes more ingrained into their psyche.
I am a terrified mom who loves her daughter. It is my job to protect her and guide her. It has always been my job. I thought I was doing the right thing by making sure she wasn’t talking online with the creepy old pervert who would try to lore her away. I watched for Internet bullying…. She seemed unscathed and aware of my concerns. But nobody wormed me about this “trans epidemic.” To be honest, I didnt know it was a thing. I didn’t know for the first 3 months after my daughter announced she was trans that there was such an epidemic. If I knew, I would have handled it so much differently. I don’t think I would have rushed to allow her to buy the binder. I would have stayed away from the typicall “sex therapists” and found one who would treat her as any teen going through what might be a phase. We all need to get the word out not only to help our kids who are currently in the mix, but the poor families about to fall into the same trap with no roadmap to follow.
Let’s all pool together our resources and try to get this trans epidemic out in the forefront!!!! If you know someone who works for the press; writes a parenting blog; owns a local paper or magazine; has a cousin who’s friend knows the sister of the writer of the New York Post… Lol… Get the word out!!!!! We have to do this for our kids!!! It is our responsibility to save them!!! All of them!!!
I feel the same way! I wish I had found this site sooner. I am dealing with the same issues. My 13 year old coming out after being online. If only I could go back in time and new Thai danger and not just the pervert on the computer. I too also got her a binder (we couldn’t even leave the house). I can’t find any professionals to help us and deal with her issues (not me accepting her being a boy)
This needs to get to the media!!!! It’s an epidemic and no one is helping us!!!
So this would be like “gender: the instant fizzy kind”.
?
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Interesting. I hope the results will be displayed in the future.
There are some good videos on Youtube looking at the trend of trans kids/teens.
Especially the channels Magdalen Berns and Yorick.
Peachyoghurt has a good video where stating why children are not transgender. I also found Jen Bob and the Two souls married couple have information about the hormones and cross hormones given for transitioning.
I know we must make a future where we allow the children to live their lives and let them make a future without a lot of labels or being over critical of their mindset. If I had children, I would let them grow and answer all their questions truthfully.
My thoughts are with all of you.
I’m sorry to be joining this parent club, but 4thWaveNow has been a lifesaver for me. My 15 year old daughter was always a girly girl, loved dresses and playing with her babies, and was a social butterfly. Last fall she started high school and became depressed and was lonely. Her only friend was girl who identified as a boy. In addition, she spent lots of time in her room on social media (mostly tumblr, probably for four months) and then decided she wanted to be a boy. She has claimed to be bisexual, pansexual, and now asexual, as well as trans.
We were able to find a therapist for her that is not a gender therapist, and that seems to be helping with the depression. She is also on medication for the depression. Thanks to 4thWaveNow, we had the courage to say NO to a binder, different pronouns, and a different name. We give her an hour a day on her phone, took away her tumblr account, have banned any trans websites.
We have told her that we recommend she wait until she’s in her mid-twenties before making any life-changing decisions regarding hormones and chopping off healthy body parts. This has been the hardest thing we have ever done as parents. It’s so very difficult to know if we’re doing the right thing and to see her unhappy.
We took 4thWaveNow’s advice to encourage and pay for outdoor activities that get her into nature, and she’s currently on a secular 3-week trip to Ecuador. Not something we could easily afford, but we’re hoping that being exposed to a third-world country, helping people, and being out in nature day in and day out will help her become more comfortable in her own skin.
I completed the questionnaire for the study and hope that by studying this topic we can get some kind of answers.
I feel your pain…..these are the darkest days I have ever faced as a parent. My child has been kidnapped and indoctrinated by a cult. I truly believe that. Currently he is lost to his family and at 19 there is not a damn thing we can do about it (although mentally he is about 16). Luckily he has agreed to a therapist outside the Gender Health Center where he gets his other counseling and propaganda along with a health advocate who will help him get whatever he wants to feel/be more like a girl, including hormone patches just for the asking. I too filled out the survey and I am so thankful to the Dr. who is pursuing this. I am also trying to alert anyone else who will listen to me, including my local newspapers investigative reporters. We have to keep fighting this insidious indoctrination of young people who have not even fully developed their brains yet! Stay strong and stay together so at some point we will be noticed and listened to.
Applauding the moves and decisions you’ve made, LMK. totally agree that a big change of scene and a service opportunity can make a big difference for any kid. I think anything that exposes a kid to a broader frame of reference, vs “my suffering is unique and unprecedented and world-shaking,” is really healthy. Whatever your child decides to do long-term, fostering an attitude of compassion and involvement is going to be a good step toward a satisfying life. Social media can lead to really intense self-involvement, and it’s great for a kid to be taken out of that. I hope your child comes back with a fresh and enlarged point of view.
To LoveMyKids- do you mind telling us the name of the program and if it worked. I am in the same boat as you and desperate to get her away for awhile. We did a week at local food bank and another week helping critically ill children and their families. though she felt great being of service to others, it was not a complete immersion. I believe that would be very impactful.
We used Bold Earth, but it turns out there are lots of companies that do teen service/adventure travel, so do your research. That said, we were very happy with our experience with them.
She had a wonderful experience, and I think it’s too soon to say if it will help in the long run. She does want to wear women’s underwear instead of men’s now, and she’s back to wearing makeup, so that’s something (all on her own, we did not influence her in any way with those things). I think it was real eye-opener for her and it was really helpful for her to get away from all social media and be in nature.
I understand these sorts of comments. I know our kids have very rigid ideas about what it means to be male or female. And when a girl who was trying to “pass” as a boy starts taking on the trappings of “femininity” – make up, long hair, certain types of clothing – we want to celebrate it. But I personally think it is very important to give our daughters the message that they don’t have to wear make-up or do any of the things that are stereotypically female. If our daughters want to have short hair or wear “men’s” clothing, we have to let them know that is more than fine. We don’t want to fall into the trap of gender policing our kids so they feel like they have to claim they are the opposite sex in order to escape the expectations placed on girls and women. I know you are not doing that, but there have been several comments that seem to be praising daughters for adhering to stereotypes. If that message is conveyed to teen girls, it might inadvertently push gender-defiant girls into the arms of those who think they are transgender simply because they don’t want to toe the gender line.
I’d like to add that we have emphasized to her that she is free to love whomever she wants and wear whatever she likes (ok, except a binder). We’ve told her it’s okay not to be gender conforming. I think it’s a hard concept for teenagers – the difference between what’s an ingrained stereotype and what’s their own internalized feeling.
I’m a psychologist and mom researching this topic. Would you be available for a phone interview?
i feel your pain….these are the darkest days I have ever faced as a parent. My child has been kidnapped and indoctrinated by a cult. I truly believe that. We must band together and keep speaking out until we have some mainstream attention. I filled out the survey as well and I’m so grateful to the Dr. who is working on this. Go to your local newspapers and see if any investigative reporters are interested in this website and what we parents are facing. Our children’s brains are not even fully developed and they are being fed pure propaganda that is leading to hormones and surgeries that have permanent consequences. My son is 19, but really about 16 emotionally and yet he has a ‘health advocate’ that will help him get whatever he wants to feel and look more female. His counselor at the Gender Health Center is a new graduate of the local college and just trying to get in her hours for an MFT license. Her day job is a postal worker! She has no experience whatsoever and yet she is counseling my child about his ‘gender dysphoria’! I could just scream! Thankfully he has agreed to see a counselor outside of this gender madness. Thanks to all who are participating here.
By its own definition, gender identity cannot be established at any time before or during the development of secondary sex characteristics. Statement from celebrities claiming to have known they were transgender since they were 5 years old are comfortable presumptions that have no basis in biology or reality (consider that these same celebrities often allow decades to pass before announcing how secure they are in themselves to a world they blame for their obviously continuing insecurity – a person whose identity is based on how the world sees him is a person with no identity). Masculinity and femininity are different concepts and can vary widely without causing the distress required for a disorder to be present, but a simple rule transcends the entire issue of gender identity: guys have Y’s.
Humans are all naturally female during early development and will remain so without a Y chromosome; the presence of a Y chromosome manipulates genetic expression to produce a male.
Perhaps the most significant and poignant consequent reality is that no therapy of any kind can convert a person of one sex to the opposite sex (and change XY to XX) without the destruction of every cell in that person and, therefore, the death of that person. A man can enter an OR and a woman can leave the OR, but one has no more in common with the other than with the billions of humans who have lived or are living, and the perhaps far more yet to live.
You are who you are. People who choose to see challenges as not fair or God’s mistake or something they deserve to not have will waste their lives pursuing the impossible and racing the clock, hoping to be spared the conscious revelation that the sum of one’s existence completely missed the point. The “thanks for playing” sensation is as cruel as self-inflicted.
Discomfort is not distress. Inconvenience is not distress. Lives are destroyed every day because these simple words are used interchangeably, and the victims are not always the ignorant.
I’m curious. This survey is being conducted by Lisa Littman MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. Mt. Sinai just recently opened a trans “one-stop shopping” Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, of which they seem to be quite proud:
http://www.mountsinai.org/patient-care/service-areas/center-for-transgender-medicine-and-surgery
Don’t get me wrong; I find this survey absolutely crucial, and I’m thrilled that anyone is even asking the questions. I would be filling it out myself if my son wasn’t over the required age-range. But, forgive me, this entire trans issue has made me extremely skeptical and jaded. What will she do with her results? If they concur with the experience of virtually every parent on here, will she be willing to bite the hand that feeds her?
Yup….follow the money
I think it is wonderful that someone is gathering data on the sudden onset gender dysphoria phenomenon and I very much appreciate Dr. Littman’s efforts.
I believe the data will likely show there are a significant number of teens identifying as trans, that social media has had quite an influence and that there are very little protections against unnecessary medical interventions. If this is the case, and it gets published, it could potentially draw much needed public attention.
Just because Dr. Littman is associated with Mt. Sinai Hospital, doesn’t mean she won’t be open minded. I know I once met someone affiliated with a gender clinic. He initially tried to be neutral on the subject, but eventually formed stronger opinions and came to disagree with what was being done to children.
to “Love My Kids,” good for you for coming up with some new experiences for your daughter. I hope you will come back and let us know if the volunteer experience abroad shifted her outlook.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find a councilor?? We have gone through four already. All trying to convince me to call my daughter a HE. I don’t know how to bring my daughter back
I’m so sorry that you and your family are going through this. I understand your pain, as my husband and I fear that we have lost our daughter to this madness. We can’t and won’t call her He/Him. She is our daughter. We don’t know what we can do to bring her back either.
I wish there was more of a forum for us parents to connect in an easier format. Especially by state in order to help us find councilors who will listen.
I am so sorry you are in the same boat. It scares me seeing how many of us this is happening to yet I feel so so alone
I am going through the same thing. This has to be a phenomenon, a trend, a temporary madness…..
It IS a cult! I’m more convinced every day. Tell anyone and everyone you can and you will have most say something like ‘oh my sons girlfriends sister is taking testosterone at 16 and totally rebellious. I have yet to mention what we have been going through without someone saying OMG me too or I know someone. This is insanity
I know. I keep thinking the same thing. I keep hoping everyday that she will snap out of it. I hope your child does also.
My daughter sees a female counselor who specializes in girls and women with eating disorders. It is not a magic bullet, but at least the counselor is accustomed to dealing with females who are unhappy with their bodies, denying their reality, trying to disappear or become someone else. There are parallels among anoeria and GID. Perhaps you could ask a potential counselor to read this piece: https://glosswatch.com/2016/04/13/the-right-way-for-women-to-disappear/ and find out what she thinks about it, before taking your daughter on as a client.
Just a suggestion. I wish I could offer more. Best wishes.
Sorry for the typo; “anoeria” should be “anorexia.”
Thank you! This helps at least a little. I think we def have to move on from this current councilor.
Hey everybody, related to peer pressure, social contagion, and parental guardianship – this is a great resource. Gabor Maté MD and Gordon Neufeld MD’s “Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers” was published in 2012, and it’s really a must-read, check it out.
They co-wrote it after both of them experienced having had to confront their children becoming secretive and unreachable. Focused more and more on their friends, they recoiled or grew hostile around adults. Why? The problem, Neufeld suggest, lies in attachment; children are increasingly forming stronger attachments to their friends than to the adults in their lives!!!
Well..yeah…they will, and the tighter you try to hold on to them…the faster they will run like hell when they can.
54 year old parent here.
Kids have always pulled away from adults and parents are not going to matter more than peers.
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Where can I find a parent support group fircROGD?
More updates, parents? There are more of us now 🙁