More young people seeking help with trans identity

Child and adolescent psychiatry is dealing with a growing number of cases in which those affected struggle with their gender. Experts refer to this as transidentity. The topic has received more attention in recent years, partly due to the debate surrounding the Self-Determination Act, said Dresden child and adolescent psychiatrist Veit Roessner to the German Press Agency. This has contributed to more young people - especially during puberty - dealing with questions about their own gender. "When the body and self-image change dramatically, many look for guidance - among friends and on social media."

Do influences from social media play a role?

"It's good when a society becomes more open and you can express such feelings without shame and fear of consequences," said Roessner, who heads the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Dresden University Hospital. This means that young people are more likely to seek advice and help. At the same time, the strong presence of the topic in the environment and online can influence how body insecurity, puberty stress or feelings of being an outsider are interpreted. This could reinforce self-descriptions, such as the feeling of not living in the "right body".

Careful clarification and counseling urgently needed

However, not every gender-related discomfort leads to persistent, medically significant suffering that justifies a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, said the head of the clinic. In adolescence in particular, it is often difficult to reliably assess how stable such an experience and the psychological distress will remain over time, said Roessner. This makes careful clarification and advice all the more important in order to differentiate cases with significant psychological distress from other developmental and stress-related problems.

Operative interventions can have irreversible consequences

"With the growing number of people seeking help, the proportion of minors who want medical measures to align their body with their perceived gender is also increasing - such as puberty blockers or hormones, and in some cases also surgical interventions. Such measures can have far-reaching, sometimes irreversible consequences. At the same time, waiting can also mean risks and additional stress," said Roessner.

More research needed on long-term courses

How great the benefits of such interventions are for minors and how high the possible risks are, however, can only be reliably quantified to a limited extent, said Roessner. In the public debate, a wait-and-see, psychosocially supportive approach without such interventions is sometimes presented as particularly risky - often with drastic figures on suicide risks. "However, recent studies and reviews show that such conclusions are not tenable. This makes it all the more important to provide transparent information about the limited data available and to conduct more high-quality research, particularly on long-term outcomes."

Experts also see a legal problem

According to Roessner, the topic also touches on legal issues: In the "Zeitschrift für Internationale Strafrechtswissenschaft" (Journal of International Criminal Law) in 2025, lawyers came to the conclusion that the prohibition of sterilization is violated when minors undergo medical gender reassignment procedures - with possible consequences under criminal law.