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Transgender youth are children or adolescents who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Because transgender youth are usually dependent on their parents for care, shelter, financial support, and other needs, transgender youth face different challenges compared to adults. Professional medical associations state that appropriate care may include supportive mental health care, social transition, and puberty blockers, which delay puberty and the development of secondary sex characteristics to give children time to make decisions about more permanent courses of action.
Patients, whose gender dysphoria continues into adolescence, are likely to persist into adulthood. A review of studies states that most prepubertal children with gender dysphoria identify as cisgender after reaching puberty. These statistics have been cited to advise caution around prepubertal social transition and access to puberty blockers due to the possibility the children may identify as cisgender in the future or may have done so if not permitted to transition. However, the evidence offered to support this has been criticized for citing studies which have been labelled conversion therapy for discouraging social transition and trying to prevent a transgender outcome. In addition, the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria used in the studies only required gender-nonconformity, and did not require a child to state a transgender identity or a desire for medical or social transition.