For adolescents with gender dysphoria, it has become common to be offered hormonal treatment to either delay or suppress pubertal development and/or to masculinize or feminize the body.  At the same time, it has been our clinical impression that the psychological vulnerability of at least some of these youth has been overlooked.

Transsexualism involves a desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by the wish to make one's body as congruent as possible with one's preferred sex through surgery and hormonal treatment