Background
Why a Transcheck?
Among teenagers and young adults, identity questions have increased significantly since the advent of smartphones, TikTok, and Instagram. What lies beneath often turns out to be something other than "being trans".
The figures: what happened since 2010?
In the Netherlands, the number of registrations at gender clinics rose from a few hundred per year in 2010 to more than two thousand per year in 2022. The largest increase: teenage girls. Before 2010, the ratio was approximately 1 to 1 (boys and girls); now it stands at 3 to 1, with girls in the majority.
You see that same pattern in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and the US — an explosive, rather sudden rise among pubertal girls, starting around the time the smartphone disappeared into every trouser pocket.
In the span of a few years, "being trans" became a frequently cited explanation for what teenagers feel when they feel different, gloomy, uncomfortable, or misfit. For some, that is true—for most, it is something else hidden beneath that language.
Social media influence
TikTok algorithms lead searchers to trans content within days. Anyone who takes a quick look suddenly sees a lot of it. The more words you put to gender feelings, the bigger they become.
Autism and ADHD
Up to 35% of young people with gender dysphoria have autism or traits of it. With autism, the body often feels strange; gender then becomes an explanation where it is not one.
Trauma
Bullying, sexual misconduct, loss, or insecurity in childhood changes how you view your body. That is real — and it is different from being trans.
Depression and anxiety
Anyone who feels miserable looks for a reason. "I was born in the wrong body" is an explanation that lands easily. But transition doesn't address depression.
Eating disorders
Both revolve around disgust with one's own body. In girls with anorexia or bulimia, the overlap with gender doubt is significant. The question is which one underlies the other.
Search identity
Puberty is a period of exploration. That is no coincidence — that is intentional. Your brain continues to develop until you are 25. Not everything you think now will stay with you later.
Why not just go to a psychologist or gender clinic?
It seems logical to go to a GP or psychologist with these questions. But in practice, that process often goes in one direction: the GP refers to a psychologist, the psychologist to a gender clinic, and there the outcome is largely predetermined — affirmation, social transition, and ultimately often medical steps.
Investigating what else might be at play is seen as "gatekeeping" and has been removed from the protocol in many clinics in the Netherlands. Young people presenting with gender dysphoria are rarely told: "let's treat the depression first" or "let's first see if this is due to trauma or autism."
Talking about it with friends or in online groups usually backfires as well. The more words you give to your feelings, the bigger they become. Your story becomes your identity, and your identity becomes your direction.
What *does* work — for everyone, regardless of your outcome
From a developmental psychological perspective, puberty is a period of exploration — that is no coincidence, that is intentional. Your personality is shaped by what you do, not by what you say about yourself.
Exercise
literally something every day
Friends in real life
not only online
A job or part-time job
structure and own funds
A hobby
where your head is coming out
Less screen time
especially gender content
Something to look forward to
holiday, festival, goal