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Transgender teenagers who begin gender-affirming treatments using puberty blockers are overwhelmingly unlikely to discontinue hormone replacement therapy moving forward, according to a new study published Thursday in The Lancet.
The gender identity clinic of the Amsterdam UMC hospital center in the Netherlands conducted the study, recruiting 720 adolescent patients who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and prescribed puberty blockers. Of the cohort, 98 percent (704 patients) reported continued use of hormone replacement therapy in a follow-up after starting.
“To our knowledge, this study is the first to assess continuation of gender-affirming hormones in a large group of transgender individuals who started medical treatment with puberty suppression in adolescence,” the study said.