WEDNESDAY, May 4, 2022 (HealthDay News) — According to a study published online May 4 in Pediatrics.

Kristina R. Olson, Ph.D., of Princeton University in New Jersey, and colleagues examined the rate of retransition and current gender identities among 317 initially transgender youth (208 transgender boys; 109 transgender girls) participating in a longitudinal study.

The researchers found that 7.3% of young people had retransitioned at least once on average five years after their initial social transition. At the end of this period, most youth (94%) identified as binary transgender youth (including 1.3% who transitioned back to another identity before returning to their binary transgender identity), while 2. 5% and 3.5% identified as cisgender and non-binary, respectively. Young people whose initial social transition occurred before the age of 6 more often had later cisgender identities; retransition frequently occurred before age 10.

“While we can never predict a child’s exact gender trajectory, this data suggests that many young people who identify early as transgender and who are supported through a social transition will go on to identify as transgender. five years after the initial social transition,” the authors write. “Parents and clinicians need to be informed that not all young people will continue on the same trajectory over time. There is a need to better understand how to support young people’s initial and later transitions.”